Today’s Irish Times letters
Ross writes:
Just thought you might be interested in this. I didn’t know the Irish Times edited the letters to the editor to such a degree. Above is the published version. Below is the original…
Dear Sir,
As a scientist I feel that I must comment on the recent statements from Irish Water on the potential presence of Lead in drinking water. The assertion that hundreds of thousands of homes have drinking water with potentially toxic levels of Lead is entirely bogus.
As Lead is very easy to detect and analyse for by many quite straightforward analytical techniques,the only certain way to know what the levels of Lead are in any particular water supply is to chemically analyse them all.
This has not been done and my feeling is that it will not and cannot be done in any practical way by Irish Water.In the UK permitted levels of Lead in drinking water should not exceed 0.01 ppm which is a miniscule but highly detectable amount. Also,Irish Water have not highlighted the different chemistry that goes on inside Lead pipes in hard water and soft water areas.
Generally in hard water areas a virtually insoluble coating of various Lead Carbonates coat the inside of the pipes making the water contained less susceptible to contamination with Lead. In soft water areas and areas with lower pH water the lead is much more soluble and the contamination with Lead should be greater in some areas in the UK the water company actively raises the pH of the water for this reason.
Here in Lismore we are blessed with two water sources,one to the North gives soft water and the other to the South gives hard water.I would like to suggest to Irish Water that they engage in more science and less hysteria.
Dr.Bernard Leddy PhD,C.Chem,CSci,MRCS,MPSI.
Lismore,
Co.Waterford
Dr Bernard was born to write on this subject.
Up there with Chuck Blazer and Larry Speakes (if anyone remembers him)
It’s all about making stuff fit (1) on the page and (2) with editorial policy.
Classic gate-keeper stuff from the IT here.
Search around Google for… media gate keeper theory
In fairness, the IT version gets the point across
I wonder if the edited letter(s) Dr. Leddy is most upset about are those fancy hard-earned ones after his name that IT chose not to include.
+1
Dr. Jones AssHAT
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FLOURIDE?!!!
if it keeps on raining the Leddy’s gonna break
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrjRKB586s
Sorry they didn’t print all the letters after your name. That must really hurt.
He is right though, of course.
IW spokesman did in fact suggest that one possible solution was to add I think potassium hydroxide to water to do what Dr Leddy suggests.
He also said that this would only happen after public consultation and agreement because of course if they were to introduce it without such consultation they would be accused of mass poisoning.
And what about all the asbestos pipe laid over the years, whats the level of
contamination from asbestos micro fibres in water, water has become a toxic
topic in the liquid and political context of late, no doubt Kenny will sort it out
wonder do they drink tap water in Government Buildings….?
The water in Galway has tiny eggs in it, and when you drink it the eggs hatch and little lizards appear with Angela Merkel’s face on them and they bore a hole out through your belly-button and create nests in your belly-button and they are called belly-button lizards and they live off pubic hair and Irish shame.
Martin BA, PhD, STI, DUPe