Water and Energy Use
Aug. 11th, 2010 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenI was thinking about this because of going to the hot tubs, wondering whether hot tubs or taking ibuprofen/anti-inflammatories used more water and other resources.
We go to a commercial facility, East Heaven, rather than having one of our own. So, there's the gas to get there, plus whatever energy is used to heat, move, and clean the water. When possible, we combine a trip there with other activities, which helps some. And East Heaven is able to clean and re-use a lot of the water, probably better than I can do it at home, although I haven't run numbers on that. Also, they use bromide salts, which aren't as nasty as chlorine.
Oh, and East Heaven's been in business since 1981 -- those are some venerable hot tubs :D They're well maintained, so I expect they'll be around for a good while yet.
I tried looking up how much water it takes to make pills (on average) -- it would be used for harvesting, manufacture, and processing of the ingredients, manufacturing the pills themselves, as well as for making the packaging (usually plastic) in which the pills come. Unfortunately I had no luck in this, as I kept coming up against "water pills" :P
Also, there is the fuel used to grow, harvest, manufacture, process, package, and transport the pills.
Then there is the possible long-term affects of the pills. One of the reasons I finally stopped taking anti-inflammatories this summer (only one aspirin since June 27), is that one of the possible side effects for Alleve was more sensitivity to bruising, and I was definitely bruising worse on self-defense nights than everyone else. I still bruise now, but not as badly. Diet change, stretching, some massages from Fitzw, hot showers and a few hot tub visits have kept things manageable.
And of course there are plenty of other possible side effects, which could lead to needing other medications... and then there's the effect on the environment, when those medications get into the rest of the ecosystem. Because people don't use all of the medication, even of the pills we take, nevermind ones that get flushed down toilets or thrown in the trash. Sewage treatment plants aren't really designed to deal with this stuff either, and so you see the reports of how much of various drugs are in the water, mutating plant and animal life, etc. That would, naturally, apply to people too, as we're part of the ecosystem.
I can't get away from all modern medications (or not yet anyway), but where I can, it's worth a try to do it, I think. And I think that the hot tub's water and energy use compares pretty favorably, even though I haven't done a scientific comparison of the numbers.
We go to a commercial facility, East Heaven, rather than having one of our own. So, there's the gas to get there, plus whatever energy is used to heat, move, and clean the water. When possible, we combine a trip there with other activities, which helps some. And East Heaven is able to clean and re-use a lot of the water, probably better than I can do it at home, although I haven't run numbers on that. Also, they use bromide salts, which aren't as nasty as chlorine.
Oh, and East Heaven's been in business since 1981 -- those are some venerable hot tubs :D They're well maintained, so I expect they'll be around for a good while yet.
I tried looking up how much water it takes to make pills (on average) -- it would be used for harvesting, manufacture, and processing of the ingredients, manufacturing the pills themselves, as well as for making the packaging (usually plastic) in which the pills come. Unfortunately I had no luck in this, as I kept coming up against "water pills" :P
Also, there is the fuel used to grow, harvest, manufacture, process, package, and transport the pills.
Then there is the possible long-term affects of the pills. One of the reasons I finally stopped taking anti-inflammatories this summer (only one aspirin since June 27), is that one of the possible side effects for Alleve was more sensitivity to bruising, and I was definitely bruising worse on self-defense nights than everyone else. I still bruise now, but not as badly. Diet change, stretching, some massages from Fitzw, hot showers and a few hot tub visits have kept things manageable.
And of course there are plenty of other possible side effects, which could lead to needing other medications... and then there's the effect on the environment, when those medications get into the rest of the ecosystem. Because people don't use all of the medication, even of the pills we take, nevermind ones that get flushed down toilets or thrown in the trash. Sewage treatment plants aren't really designed to deal with this stuff either, and so you see the reports of how much of various drugs are in the water, mutating plant and animal life, etc. That would, naturally, apply to people too, as we're part of the ecosystem.
I can't get away from all modern medications (or not yet anyway), but where I can, it's worth a try to do it, I think. And I think that the hot tub's water and energy use compares pretty favorably, even though I haven't done a scientific comparison of the numbers.
