What from your childhood would be UNTHINKABLE today?

[Neil]

Berkut, normally you would run the water for a while to let it get cold before drinking.  Most of us wouldnt suck the stuck out.

True, although you are still risking elevated amounts of lead. It isn't like there is some ok amount of lead.

The other concern with standing water is using it to fill up a kiddie pool, for example. Not at all unusual to toss the hose into the pool before turning it on.

It's not like lead is that big a deal.

[dps]

Speaking of old timey TV, I remember the the day the family got a VCR. IT WAS LIKE A WHOLE NEW WORLD OPENED UP FOR ME.

We were late to the game, it wasn't till like 1986 for xmas.

I'm not sure that was late.  I don't think VCR ownership passed 50% of households until sometime in the late 80s.

[Berkut]

Given that people have been doing this for generations, is there any study that links hose use with adverse results in any way?

I read your other post about proper hose use but really, do you know anyone that "flushes" their hose before using it?

I do.

And as far as studies are concerned, it is trivially easy to find a myriad of studies relating to the dangers of lead poisoning.

And you can also find plenty of studies about the amount of lead that can leech into hose water from unsafe hoses.

[crazy canuck]

I do.

I no longer believe your claim that you are not overly protective.

[dps]

Given that people have been doing this for generations, is there any study that links hose use with adverse results in any way?

I read your other post about proper hose use but really, do you know anyone that "flushes" their hose before using it?

I do.

And as far as studies are concerned, it is trivially easy to find a myriad of studies relating to the dangers of lead poisoning.

And you can also find plenty of studies about the amount of lead that can leech into hose water from unsafe hoses.

How many documented cases are there, if any, in which someone has suffered from lead poisoning and the source of the lead has been water from hoses?  I have doubts that there are any, but I could be wrong.  On the other hand, while I don't have any link on the subject, I'm pretty sure there were many documented cases of children getting lead poisoning from eating paint chips with lead in them.

EDIT:  I was always wary of drinking water from a hose, but that was because I worried about what kinds of bacteria and the like might be living in there, not because of lead.

[Berkut]

Given that people have been doing this for generations, is there any study that links hose use with adverse results in any way?

I read your other post about proper hose use but really, do you know anyone that "flushes" their hose before using it?

I do.

And as far as studies are concerned, it is trivially easy to find a myriad of studies relating to the dangers of lead poisoning.

And you can also find plenty of studies about the amount of lead that can leech into hose water from unsafe hoses.

How many documented cases are there, if any, in which someone has suffered from lead poisoning and the source of the lead has been water from hoses?  I have doubts that there are any, but I could be wrong.  On the other hand, while I don't have any link on the subject, I'm pretty sure there were many documented cases of children getting lead poisoning from eating paint chips with lead in them.

EDIT:  I was always wary of drinking water from a hose, but that was because I worried about what kinds of bacteria and the like might be living in there, not because of lead.

:boggle:

So you understand that lead is dangerous, and you understand that lead can get into water in a hose, but you cannot believe that people drinking water out of hoses can get lead poisoning?

WTF?

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Smoking.

Oh yeah - my mom smoked all the time, including when pregnant, and there were ashtrays in the hall in my junior school for convenience of teachers. 

My high school had designated smoking areas for students.

also I went to the store from age 5 by myself (in the sticks walking down the main road) and buy smokes for my mom with a note. I would often take hours to do this as I stopped and dawdled in ponds, thickets and such. driving in the back of pickups was required. played outside from sun up to after sundown by ourselves  every day all summer.

[Berkut]

I do.

I no longer believe your claim that you are not overly protective.

Shrug. Keeping my kids from drinking lead doesn't strike me as particularly over-protective, especially when it is trivially easy to avoid. But I suppose people place different values on the health of their children.

[Neil]

I do.

I no longer believe your claim that you are not overly protective.

Shrug. Keeping my kids from drinking lead doesn't strike me as particularly over-protective, especially when it is trivially easy to avoid. But I suppose people place different values on the health of their children.

I wouldn't have thought Berkut would be the one to make a 'think of the children' argument.  Still, nobody is immune to panic over minor things.

[garbon]

I wouldn't have thought Berkut would be the one to make a 'think of the children' argument.  Still, nobody is immune to panic over minor things.

The "'think of the children' argument" would be to say that all hoses, except safe ones, should be banned.

[alfred russel]

Good thread idea Malthus. A few things off the top of my head:

--Back when I was very small (I guess under 5), I used to like to sit on the armrest in the car next to my father as we rode around town (it was the way I could see out the front windshield). This stopped when my father slammed on brakes to avoid hitting a dog that ran out in front of him; sending me into the dashboard. I wasn't hurt, probably because he probably only slammed on brakes from about 10-15 mph, but in a wreck I'm sure I would have been through the windshield.

--When I was around 8, I roamed the neighborhood unsupervised with the other neighborhood kids (this was in a suburban environment outside of a city). This may not have been smart, as we had many dumb ideas, such as parachuting from trees. We practiced on very low branches for a while using grocery bags as parachutes, theorizing they must be working as we weren't hurt from the 3 foot falls. Finally we decided to try a tall tree using a backpack loaded with a sheet. Luckily a neighborhood father was looking out the window as our test jumper climbed the tree or we might have been down a kid.

--A number of us got BB guns when we got older, which were predictably used to hunt birds. Considering that we weren't in the country, I'm not sure how we avoided shooting each other, a bystander, or a window. A kid in our neighborhood did get shot in the face with a BB gun in an intentional shooting, but both the shooter and shootee were people we didn't associate with.

--No one wore bicycle helmets, but this was probably a good thing for safety reasons as I'm sure if I wore one I would have gotten beat up at least once for it.

--And in probably the most reckless behavior of all, we drank water out of hoses.

[DisturbedPervert]

The main problem with drinking water out of hoses when I was a kid, was the water was too hot.  You had to let it run for a minute to wash out all the warm water in the hose.  Which is lucky, as it also prevented me from dieing of lead poisoning.

[alfred russel]

Berkut, normally you would run the water for a while to let it get cold before drinking.  Most of us wouldnt suck the stuck out.

True, although you are still risking elevated amounts of lead. It isn't like there is some ok amount of lead.

The other concern with standing water is using it to fill up a kiddie pool, for example. Not at all unusual to toss the hose into the pool before turning it on.

Why wouldn't you run a hose for a while before filling up a kiddie pool? Water in a hose that has been sitting out for a while is rancid.

I don't doubt that water out of a hose is less than ideal (I won't even drink tap water ordinarily), but I am sure it is safer than the average water sources our ancestors lived with for thousands of years.

[HVC]

--And in probably the most reckless behavior of all, we drank water out of hoses.

I was right on the cusp of the "safety boom". so we didn't get the fun stuff like lawn darts or those wood burnign kits. Wehn i was little (3-4?) my dad get pulled over and got a ticket because i was standing on the arm rest of the car with my head and arms out the sun roof. soon after pulling away i was doing it again

Oh, and i used to walk home from school from grade 2 to 6 (at which point i moved to a farm, making it more difficult to walk home ). it was about a 20 minute walk.

[grumbler]

Grumbler used to spar with the older legionnaires when the returned from campaigning against the Gauls - nobody cared about a young boy swinging around a gladius or throwing a practice pila.

By the time of the Gallic Wars I had my chariot license, and was cruising the streets with my homies, woofing the chicks.

...unless you meant Marius's campaign in Gallia Cisalpina against the Germans, in which case you are correct.