The whole reason permanganate is added in the first place is twofold: it oxidizes simple organics all the way to carbon dioxide (think nail polish remover, denatured alcohol), and it oxidizes soluble ferrous iron to insoluble ferric iron. The byproduct of the oxidation, manganese dioxide, is insoluble and if balanced correctly the treatment does not increase manganese levels in the water.
Whenever I learn something like this, I always appreciate chemistry a little more. That is absolutely fascinating IMO.
The first thing that comes to mind is what the person who came up with the idea was doing at the time. Sometimes when we are intending to do one thing, we invent a solution to another problem, maybe one we didn't even know we had, along the way.
When I was a kid I was visiting my aunt who lived outside of Denver. I was walking around their property and on the other side of a fence was a stream which was exactly this color. I've always wondered what the deal was
But what about a small dose taken over years, and interacting with the thousands of small doses of synthetic chemicals we have in our body because of processed food, hygiene products, clothes, surface treatments and medicine ?
This we have no way to know.
There are already so many reasons to get in contact with synthetic chemicals. I think it's sane policy to limit them a much as we can when we can, especially in something as ubiquitous as water.
Yes having drinkable water is essential, but some cities manage to have it with much less additives. It should be the default goal for anything related to public health.
Such a pointless distinction. There are many chemicals that occur naturally and will kill you.
We do have a way to know. It's called chemistry, and one of the primary goals of chemistry is to be able to predict what sort of reactions will occur in a mixture of molecules. Anyone who takes organic chemistry should be able to tell you how alkenes, alkynes, aldehydes, ketones, ketals, alcohols, aromatics, amines, amides, peroxides, ethers, esters, etc. are likely to react in various conditions, and hopefully what factors promote or retard such reactions.
Why are you worrying about cumulative doses over years, when this problem literally existed for minutes?
A quick google search suggests that they are used to "improve water clarity" [0], so at a guess you don't use enough of it to turn the water pink.
There's also the fact that they think it's concentrated enough that you should avoid bathing in it if you have sensitive skin. That certainly doesn't inspire confidence that you should drink it (exposing some very important skin, that's usually more sensitive).
[0] http://www.livestrong.com/article/71333-use-potassium-perman...
If the pictures are true to the situation, the concentrations are tiny. You can look up videos of people putting less than a teaspoon into water to get the same result.
IIRC, PP can be a precursor to chlorine. But, you're comparing two different chemicals here and what applies to one likely doesn't apply to another.
There is a chance your skin will feel like it's burning if it's not fully dissolved in water. I wouldn't advise touching the dry powder. The shards will embed into your skin and it will feel like an open wound filled with Tabasco for a long time.
Fun-fact: If you mix it with glycerol it combusts, so don't use any lotions with it if you get some on your skin.
ETA: I don't know what's going on, but there's a lot of low-effort responses in this thread. Is it the hours?
PP-treated water is safer than chlorine-treated water.
Or drink your own piss, ala Bear Grylls. Healthy, and helps build character. I just think that these Albertans are just a bit too... spoiled I think?
The attitude of "Oh that's absolutely demonstrably awful, here's X to subsidize your life," needs to stop.
How about we create societies where the onus of providing clean drinking water to humans is not arguable?
The article indicates that potassium permanganate is what caused the water to be pink.
The commenter is explaining that potassium permanganate is harmless and usually used as a water purifier anyway.
I have no idea how that can be interpreted as "Oh that's absolutely demonstrably awful, here's X to subsidize your life,"
(the post you replied to is pointing out that the potassium permanganate that turned the water pink is not especially dangerous, not arguing that the people should be given more potassium permanganate)
Do people really not know where their hot water comes from?
This must be from Zootopia =))
Same colour, but not the same texture
RO systems waste water as that is how they work, expect your water usage to go up (how much depends on a lot of factors, for us it did not impact our water bill).
Whole house RO systems are probably a non-starter, keeping the water pressure up high enough seems like it would be very expensive.
