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Is Water Softener Harmful to the Environment?

Is Water Softener Harmful to the Environment?

Water is one of Earth’s most vital resources, that plays an essential role in the sustenance of life. But in its natural form, water contains large amounts of magnesium, calcium, iron and other minerals, making it challenging for daily use. This is called hard water. To eliminate the various challenges of using hard water, water softeners are used before its direct consumption. The water softener removes all the contaminants from water, acting as a magnetic sponge to pull those minerals away, thus making it safe to use.

Impact on the environment

Softening of water with the help of a sodium-based water softener comes with a heavy cost to the environment. Listed below are some of the brutal side effects water softeners have on our environment.

  • Sodium based water softeners increase the amount of water consumption.
  • It also causes harm to the plants as they cannot handle high volumes of salt. Sodium that is present in softened water tricks plants into believing that the amount of water in them is enough to sustain life, thus interfering with their water balance. This leads to the plant to dry up and finally die.
  • Water that is already softened is not capable of being recycled again, probing a threat to the environment.
  • When softened water is discharged into the water bodies, like rivers, lakes, and oceans, the sodium and calcium ions present in the salt cause severe damage to the marine and aquatic life.
  • Although it helps reduce magnesium and calcium, there is an increase in the amount of lead and other metals along with sodium in softened water.

Salt-free water softener

In order to escape the many hazardous effects traditional salt-based water softeners have on the environment and our the overall well-being, it would be a wiser option to replace the same with salt-free water softeners. With a great track record of eliminating bad pollutants from the water, salt-based water softeners leave the excellent minerals intact. Hence, Some of the many benefits of the newer salt-free water softeners are:

  • The water tastes better because of the presence of carbon in it
  • Does not harm the marine life when discharged into the water bodies.
  • Allows you to save up on buying salt for the water softening, as you don’t have to constantly buy bags of salt.
  • Provides you with sodium free water that doesn’t contain salt, thus preventing many environmental problems.

Thus, with salt-free water softener ability to prevent scale on the inside of the plumbing and dechlorinate water, this is for you! In addition, its most significant benefit is that it does not have any side effects on the environment.


Sodium based water softeners probe a dangerous threat for the environment. However, it’s a necessity to soften water for some areas. Salt-free water softeners are an excellent alternative to the sodium based ones. Considering the various pros and cons of salt-based water softeners, you should pick the one of the best for water softening, that is not just safe for the environment but also best for your daily requirements.

Does Welding do anything good in our environment

Does Welding do anything good in our environment

Welding works, in the same way, today as before. With economic gestures of cuts in a global market, many fear what the future holds. Even if the world does not seem to do business a year ago, there will always be a need for the welder. What types of welding would it be better to know?

There will always be a need for a qualified metal distributor in our world. The fact is that some welding applications never seem to be replaced. If you observe the high-pressure effect that takes place in a room such as a boiler or a refinery, it is obvious that the need for certified welders will last as long as the human being wants their comfort.

It is difficult to do without electricity. If you run out of electricity at this time while reading this article, I would not be very happy and would pay the amount needed to repair it. Then in that sense. Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly used welding applications.

Above all, we have the stick principle of minimal use of electricity with welding helmet models available in the market. This is really a backbone process in the world of welding. Most people who enter the field of welding come through the stick application. Even with other more complicated processes, most of these high-tech activities will eventually use the stick.

If you try to learn to weld, the first stop of the route is the deposit of the floor rods where the welder takes into account the many ways in which the coating with flow bar is applied. There are a variety of ways in which this type of welding is used. This includes the different positions and the different coatings that are considered. If you are welding at high pressure in an oil refinery and you are using the TIG root and the welding step, the final phase of the weld using the particular pipe is the filler and lid coated with flux.

Can a steel structure that can carry tons of physical weight handle iron? Is there any other way to accomplish this task? Honestly, the answer is no. The days of the hot rivets are gone. There is still the use of screws but often involves welding. Metal welding still performs quite well. Even in the screwing process, there is a technique known as nut killing. Here, the nut is welded by stitches on the bolt to prevent it from coming out of the bolt or bolt thread. However, you need the soldering iron.

Then we have the non-stick soldering iron and its demand. Next, we have to look at the tube soldering iron. Of all the welding works carried out all over the world, it is believed that pipe welding is the best and most influential. A good pipe welder used to be a very respected person. Unfortunately, this attitude has changed today. What has not changed is the growing need for this type of skills. A good idea is to get as far as possible in the upper part of the welding area that interests you.

Recently there has been an influence of pipes made of plastic or polymer materials instead of metal. Although this is a fact, another fact that will not change is that plastic pipes can not replace in any way iron or stainless steel materials where critical pressures or corrosive substances are used within the pipe process. Chemical factories or refineries will use more and more metal than anything else. Hospitals use a lot of metal. Dairy products, light bicycle frames, power plants, etc. Another aspect of the pipeline field is in the oil and gas subsoil.

Environmental Consequences of Modern Weapons

Environmental Consequences of Modern Weapons

Modern warfare can cause greater devastation to our environment compared to the weapons used in previous wars like in World War I and II, Vietnam War, Kosovo War and Gulf War. The progression of this dangerous warfare from the chemical to nuclear weapons has over the time increased stress to our environment. The world has witnessed the invention of dangerous weapons of mass destruction which can cause significant environmental destruction. Other than the loss of human life, the first one to suffer is our natural resources such as wild animals and forests. Nuclear warfare is known to have direct and indirect environmental effects. Also, geospheric or atmospheric disturbances as a result of weapons can cause changes to the weather and climate.

Military campaigns use large quantities of a modern weapon and a fraction of these weapons do not detonate properly, which means they leave unexploded weapons to our environment. This creates a very serious chemical hazard that can cause physical injuries to the civilians population and negative environmental effects. Such weapons include the Russian medieval weapons, which can cause far-reaching effects to our environment if we don’t take serious measures to save our environment.

Testing of nuclear weapons has been done in different locations such as New Mexico, Bikini Atoll, Novaya Zemlya, Marshall Islands and Mururoa Atoll, among others. U.S. government carried out a study on environmental impact caused by testing these weapons and also post-war effects of radioactive isotopes. They found elements of sr-90 were present in the human body through the food chain. Another study has been done on the effect of uranium in modern weapons on the long-term health of human beings. The findings showed that uranium exposure can affect our brain, kidney, liver, and heart, among other body organs.

Although ecological disturbances as result of conflicts have been occurring for many centuries, modern-day weapons have made the impact even more severe. A good example is the Gulf War that occurred in 1991, which left a huge environmental effect due to depleted uranium weapons. These weapons commonly referred as DU are used by powerful countries to penetrate the enemy tanks among other targets, but these weapons have potential health risks due to uranium exposure.

Another serious environmental consequence is the degradation of infrastructure where basic services such water supply systems are destroyed. A more serious case is where public water systems are contaminated with bacteria as result of war conflicts. It becomes difficult for civilians to access safe drinking water. Also, the destruction of forests by the military machinery and warfare has caused a serious environmental impact. Military hardware and explosives have disrupted the ecosystem by causing deforestation, soil erosion, and habitat destruction.

Use of chemical agents has also led to suffering among the civilian population. A striking example was the use of the famous agent orange in Vietnam war and now there is an allegation that chemical agents are used in Syrian War. In Vietnam, the chemical agent was used to destroy forest vegetation cover in order to expose the enemy. The impact of that chemical agent was quite severe that crops were also destroyed too. In addition to environmental effects, humans were seriously affected by that chemical agent. Many suffered skin problems, lung cancer, birth defects, spontaneous abortion, and chloracne, among other diseases.

Earth Week Activities

Earth Week Activities

Interfaith Earth Week Activities (April 21-27, 2012)

Specific action plans: In Washington, D.C. there will be a series of activities during the week of April 21-27 organized by a number of faith-based and sister organizations.


  • IMACC (Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Change) is organizing a sunrise vigil, an interfaith service and a religious procession from the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church to the U.S. Capitol.
  • 6:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. – Sunrise Vigil at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. 8:30 service with Bill McKibben, Ibrahim Ramey, Indigenous leaders and Luci Murphy.  See MAP for MLK, Jr. Memorial here.
  • 9:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Procession to New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (1313 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.)
  • 10:30 a.m. – Multi-faith service at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Participants: Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Della Adams, Dr. Carroll Baltimore, Roya Bauman, Sr. Simone Campbell/SSS, Rev. Richard Cizik, Rev. Theresa Dear, Rev. Jim Deming, Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Mohammed El-Idrissi, Sarah James, Rev. Alan Johnson, Fr. Paul Mayer, Mohawk Clan Mother Louise McDonald, Rev. Janet Parker, Dorthea Thomas, Kusum Vyas, Rev. Lennox Yearwood
  • 12 noon – 1:00 p.m. Procession to Upper Senate Park at the U.S. Capitol, 200 New Jersey Ave.; shared brown-bag lunch and vigil.
  • 1:30 p.m. – Commissioning Vigil at the Capitol
  • 2 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Congressional visits on Capitol Hill: Constituent group meetings with members of both houses of Congress.
  • 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.  Closing, sharing, and benediction, Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 E. Capitol St.