Toxic chemicals from standard garden hoses & safe hose alternatives

IncredibowlBoss · Jul 2, 2012

I recently had the opportunity to do a little upgrading in my garden and decided to step up my water filtration with a Pure Water Products garden hose filter (http://www.purewaterproducts.com/gardenhosefilters.htm). Its a badass filter that's come highly recommended, so I was psyched to get it set up. I connected a heavy duty garden hose I picked up from Home Depot and immediately noticed that the water coming out the other end smelled STRONGLY like garden hose.

This got me suspicious, so I started doing a little research and found some articles that seemed to confirm my suspicions (that garden hose water can contain high levels of PCBs), and added some new concerns (100-times the allowable level of lead in drinking water!). Here's some articles for review:
http://containergardening.about.com/od/greencontainergardening/a/Gardenhose.htm
Toxic Garden Hose Water: Drinking From Common Water Hoses Potentially Dangerous, Study Finds
2012 Garden Products Study

It goes without saying that this seems like a cause for concern, so I did a little research on possible solutions, and I found these hoses:
The Armadillo Garden Hose (pricey!)
The Gator Hyde Hose

Does anyone out there have any insight on the potential problems from toxic hoses and/or a recommendation of a good replacement hose (whether one of the above or a different one)?

Gascanastan · Jul 2, 2012

Good topic man.
This is the one I use...and oddly I'm the only organic grower I know that uses a food grade hose to water with.

http://www.factorydirecthose.com/site/932652/page/2143237

IncredibowlBoss · Jul 2, 2012

Gascanastan said:
Good topic man.
This is the one I use...and oddly I'm the only organic grower I know that uses a food grade hose to water with.

http://www.factorydirecthose.com/site/932652/page/2143237

Thanks bro - I was thinking that Gator Hyde was the way to go - I especially like that they have a 25' length - I've got like 30' of wasted hose coiled up in the basement

ClackamasCootz · Jul 2, 2012

Check out the high-end aquarium shops and web sites. Especially the folks running saltwater reef systems - talk about anal

CC

ClosetAdvocate · Jul 2, 2012

I wonder how "potentially dangerous" it is. I'm sure almost every member over the age of 22 here remembers drinking out of the hose in the summer time.

PCBs? Wow no wonder why my state has such high levels of PCBs in the water supply. Everytime someone waters their plants they're dumping PCBs in the groundwater.

The article says that this is an issue only when the hose is left out in the sun.
Apparently the sun degrades the materials and it leeches toxic chemicals.

It shouldn't be an issue if you keep your hose out of the sun.

That being said, the study is extremely small. In fact, any high school graduate could tell you that a sample size of 2 garden hoses is REALLY SMALL.

100% of the products sampled (four work gloves sampled and two garden hoses) for phthalates contained four phthalate plasticizers which are currently banned in children’s products.

Gascanastan · Jul 2, 2012

ClackamasCootz said:
"talk about anal"

CC

I guess it's because I ignite the cannabis and inhale it deeply into my lung tissue....I might not be so anal if I didn't ..who knows.

IncredibowlBoss · Jul 2, 2012

ClosetAdvocate said:
I wonder how "potentially dangerous" it is. I'm sure almost every member over the age of 22 here remembers drinking out of the hose in the summer time.

PCBs? Wow no wonder why my state has such high levels of PCBs in the water supply. Everytime someone waters their plants they're dumping PCBs in the groundwater.

The article says that this is an issue only when the hose is left out in the sun.
Apparently the sun degrades the materials and it leeches toxic chemicals.

It shouldn't be an issue if you keep your hose out of the sun.

That being said, the study is extremely small. In fact, any high school graduate could tell you that a sample size of 2 garden hoses is REALLY SMALL.

For some reason, I fucked up posting the first link I found that cited a study with a sample of 100 hoses (I'll try to dig it up again) - the highest concentrations of PCBs are definitely found when the hose is left in the sun, but many hoses still leach PCB as the water is flowing through them or - even worse (and specific to my case) as the water sits in the hose under pressure because there's a sprayer head on the end.

The other concern is lead coming off the metal fittings and that seems to happen regardless of sunlight/heat.

IncredibowlBoss · Jul 2, 2012

ClosetAdvocate said:
That being said, the study is extremely small. In fact, any high school graduate could tell you that a sample size of 2 garden hoses is REALLY SMALL.

From the first link I *did* successfully post (Huffington Post):
"Lead is found in the brass fixtures at the mouth of gardening hoses and, out of the of 90 garden hoses screened, 33 percent of products contained levels of lead that exceeded those considered safe for children."

Actually - I just re-checked the HealthyStuff.org study - though the chart only shows too hoses, the first paragraph ("What Did We Test") says:
HealthyStuff.org screened 179 common garden products. Including garden hoses (90); garden gloves (53); kneeling pads (13) and garden tools (23).

Other scary quotes:
"Garden hoses are not regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which monitors the nation's public drinking supply. The study's findings showed that levels of lead in water coming from garden hoses they tested exceeded legal safe levels 100 percent of the time."

"The study found levels of BPA at 20 times higher than those of safe drinking water levels.

The study reported that 100 percent of the garden hoses sampled contained several plasticizers currently banned in children's products. According to Health Stuff, consumption of these hazardous plasticizers can disturb normal hormonal processes and are linked to birth defects, altered levels of reproductive hormones, increased breast cancer risk, and asthma."

I dunno if the same stuff that can fuck up human hormones can fuck up plant hormones, but RNA is RNA...

Scrappy4 · Jul 2, 2012

Gascanastan said:
I guess it's because I ignite the cannabis and inhale it deeply into my lung tissue....I might not be so anal if I didn't ..who knows.

that's better than canna suppositories, that would be anal.....scrappy

heady blunts · Jul 2, 2012

this is terrifying.

tagged for further reading.

Gascanastan · Jul 2, 2012

Scrappy4 said:
that's better than canna suppositories, that would be anal.....scrappy

There are more children born today in the United States that have unexplained developmental issues than ever before...no doubt the consequences of an industrialized time in history where petrochemical products were marketed to consumers without question or concern for consequence in the future generations of a species.
The human species is ill.....just like a trail of ants that gets blasted with a can of Raid...watch 'em squirm,die and mutate before your very eyes.

Microbeman · Jul 2, 2012

We use all food grade hose, pipe, brass fittings in our brewers. Just realized my buddy fills his water resevoir with garden hose...yucka

DARC MIND · Jul 3, 2012

mm
you dont use PVC?
had always wanted to hear opinions on pvc as well,great thread by the way
http://www.terranovalandscaping.com/blog/2007/09/07/pvc-free-irrigation/

Microbeman · Jul 3, 2012

DARC MIND said:
mm
you dont use PVC?
had always wanted to hear opinions on pvc as well,great thread by the way
http://www.terranovalandscaping.com/blog/2007/09/07/pvc-free-irrigation/

Yes the same PVC which brings most peoples' drinking water.

It is not perfect but it is the only rigid pipe available. We use HDPE for irrigation. If they really wanted to advocate healthier plastic, it can be made from hemp.

ClackamasCootz · Jul 3, 2012

I'm thinking back to the halcyon days of 'my yutz' and when it was hot in the summer we'd turn on the hose and you had to wait for a couple of minutes for the hot water to be pushed so that you could enjoy the sweet taste of hot rubber with new cold water which was most likely being delivered in lead pipes given the age of the house (1905)

Touching isn't it?

vonforne · Jul 3, 2012

Ahhhhhh just thinking about that rubber tasting, luke warm water brings back memories...........

magiccannabus · Jul 3, 2012

Many plastics are treated with heavy metals to stabilize them. PVC is notorious for this. It's one of the most toxic everyday plastics. It's good when you can find a source that specifies that it is free of toxic metals(lead in particular).

ChaosCatalunya · Jul 3, 2012

Use uPVC not PVC....

uPVC is the "rawest" stage, the small u means UnPlasticised, it is hard and black, basic Hydro irrigation hose. This is the right stuff to use.

If you use hose that is soft or coloured, it is PVC, it is uPVC that has been Plasticised ... it has had all sorts of very dodgy chemicals added to soften it and colour it. This is what will be leached out by your low pH/high CF Hydro solution, probably to some extent by plain water too ...

Plenty of suppliers claim their hose is some techno bla bla silicone "safe" ... but, for me, play 100% safe, just use the basic, hard, cheap as chips, black uPVC irrigation hose, you will not go wrong.

Hydro systems use a lower pH than drinking water, this has the effect of leaching out the plasticisers [and probably colourants] from Garden hose, always amazing how many people are happy to use it as "it is easier to use" and overlook the scummy slime inside as something you can clean out between crops.

BurnOne · Jul 3, 2012

Running water through the hose for a couple seconds gets rid of almost all of the toxins (if any. I have my doubts). Same with brass valves and faucets. The lead solder used to join the parts together inside them is flushed away within a few seconds.
Burn1

magiccannabus · Jul 3, 2012

While that is true of the solder, lead is often accidentally added to the brass/bronze fittings made in China. Lead is everywhere there, they're paying a heavy karma for selling out. I remember a while back when they were recalling all the Cars movie related toys because the metal AND the plastic were toxic on any of them. Even American-made copper alloys have trace lead in them, but the amounts on Chinese parts are way out of the safe range by US standards. They can be sold here like that, just not made here like that. Oh the irony. They made everyone get rid of their lead-based paints, but your baby's pacifier might have lead and mercury in it.

Toxic chemicals from standard garden hoses & safe hose alternatives

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