While surfing some of my favorite design sites, I found a link to this article. Yes, the obvious answer to the soap-and-sudsing dilemma is that we should all ride bicycles, bathe in metal tubs in our front yards, and wash our dishes down by the river with leaves and twigs.
From the article: "seventeen states -- including llinois, Massachusetts and Michigan -- banned phosphates. That's because environmentalists believe that when phosphates enter the water supply they block oxygen production, which is dangerous for the fish populations that rely on it."
Translation: "That's because environmentalists believe modern products contain evil spirits that anger the gods."
How did we let superstitious Luddites get in control of the country?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe New York Times of all places had an article about this a few months ago. After I read that article, I used the dishwasher for awhile, but reverted back to handwashing my dishes. Apparently the extra strength of using my hands has cut down the dirtiness of the dishes to a minimum, but, then that defeats the whole purpose of having a dishwasher, doesn't it? Well, it's just an oversized dish rack now.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDEAR AMY:
It's true that not EVERYONE can ride bicycles to work. But MORE people can, and that WOULD be a good thing!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe science backing up the case against phosphates is fairly sound and has been built up over the course of decades, Zman.
For starters: External Link
Chrisboltssr, a modern dishwasher is still useful even if using your hands gives fewer streaks; regardless of how the dishes *look*, the heat-based sterilization of a modern dishwasher is incredibly effective.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWoo hoo -- went to Lowes, got some DAP Tri sodium phosphate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI love the smell of algea blooms in the morning... they smell like... VICTORY!
Excess nutrients from phosphorous and nitrogen are indeed causing significant impacts to many of our water bodies. Areas of low dissolved oxygen aka "dead zones" are negatively impacting fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico. I wish more conservatives would encourage more proactive voluntary initiatives to address these issues, rather than doing nothing and waiting for more regulations.
Signed: A former Bushie (and card carrying conservative)
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Chrisboltssr, a modern dishwasher is still useful even if using your hands gives fewer streaks; regardless of how the dishes *look*, the heat-based sterilization of a modern dishwasher is incredibly effective."
And here I thought that washing them in HOT WATER was what sterilized the dishes. And the look of dishes are important, or are you about to tell me that a little grunge is a good thing?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't want fish to die, but it is disgraceful that this sort of nanny-stateism occurs. I'm not a fan of the green movement, but at least advertising that encourages people to be eco-friendly gives people a choice. To have my choice taken away? I'm not excited about it.
And my dishes are harder to clean, and my low-income family doesn't have the spare time to hand-wash everything. Pretty typical of coastal liberal elites--find a "good idea," institute it with no thought of unintended consequences, and then upgrade the EIC or minimum wage for us less affluent folk to make themselves feel better about it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRemoving P from dish soap is lauded by some, it really doesn't matter. The effluent treatment limits for P at impaired water bodies/rivers for public wastewater treatment plants (where most dishwater goes)is between 70 to 100 micrograms per milliliter.
Treatment to 500 micrograms per ml is quite cost effective. It gets very expensive as you reach 100 and beyond technological limits to reach 70 reliably.
That said, you can remove all the P from soap you want and the influent entering the treatment plant will continue to have P concentrations well in excess of 500 micrg's per ml. the food we eat naturally contains concentrations in excess of 500 microg's per ml.
In other words, it's sound and fury signifying nothing...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSomething has gone seriously awry when the concerns of algae and fish, based on nothing more than conjecture by self-interested environmentalists, are allowed to outweigh the health concerns of people. They'll get my phosphorus detergent out of my cold, dead hands.
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