Dihydrogen Monoxide: Hazard?

Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.

Dihydrogen monoxide:
- is the major component of acid rain
- contributes to the "greenhouse effect"
- it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
- contributes to erosion
- accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals
- may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes
- has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

Despite the dangers, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:
- as an industrial solvent and coolant.
- as an ingredient in concrete.
- in nuclear power plants.
- in the production of styrofoam.
- as a fire retardant.
- in many forms of cruel animal research.
- as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products.

Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal.

The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its "importance to the economic health of this nation." In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.

Chemical Formula: H2O.

Other Names: Product also known as water, ice, and steam.


Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and other disclosures of potential product hazards are vital to protecting public and environmental health, safety, and welfare. Still, the testing, documentation, and record-keeping requirements can be an onerous burden. For anyone who has ever felt rankled in this regard, I hope the preceding warning brings a smile to your face.

Based on Petition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide at www.petitiononline.com/h2o/petition.html.

Flood-Resistance Research

More about the growing need for flood-resistant building products:

If you wanted to design a more flood-resistant building, there is little data on the forces created by surging water in buildings. An Australian scientist, Richard Brown, took advantage of the recent floods there to instrument a building. Among key findings:

• Debris carried along by the water acts like battering rams.
• Speed of water flow can vary rapidly. Flows of 0.3 m per second – a rate at which an average person can still stand up – could change within 40 seconds 1.8 m per second, Richard says.
• Smooth floors offered no resistance or interruption to the flow.

The investigator says "this sort of information will assist architects and designers to build safer buildings with railings, places of refuge or ways to slow water flow," We add that it can also benefit product manufacturers.  More info.

Flood Resistant Products

I have written recently about the growing opportunities for flood-resistant building products. Here is an exciting new product that addresses this need:

The High Tide Escape Hatch can be installed between roof rafters, and opens easily to allow people to escape through their roof. For anyone building in a low laying area, it has now become irresponsible to not provide this type of egress.

What new products will you introduce to address the concerns about flooding?

Flushing Branding Down the Drain

Can a company simultaneously promote water conservation and conspicuous consumption? Kohler Company has done an admirable job of developing and promoting plumbing fixtures and trim that help conserve water, including flushometer tank toilets and waterless urinals. And, they have worked hard to make water conservation part of their company's branding. At last fall's GreenBuild show, a banner above the Kohler booth proclaimed the company as, "The Water Conservation Company".

A similar theme is visible in the recent ad on the right, proclaiming, "Bold. Conservation." But while this ad ran in National Geographic, the ad on the left, showing a shower system with very high water consumption, ran in Wired.

I respect niche marketing, but I also respect integrity. To my way of thinking, their water conservation positioning goes down the drain when they also promote such wasteful showering.

Let us know what you think. And for further discussion, see EcoGeek.

Water Usage in Buildings

While the efficiency of plumbing fixtures comes immediately to mind when thinking about water conservation, concerns about water usage affect many other categories of building products. Just as many buildings attempt to go off the power grid by generating electricity on site, designers are now looking for ways to take buildings off the water grid by collecting and reusing water on site. Roofing, wall cladding, and sitework must all be re-evaluated in terms of their use in water systems. On-site water storage and processing requires new types of tanks and structural systems. And surfaces that are self-cleaning or otherwise reduce the amount of water used for maintenance are being introduced.

A conceptual study of a highrise designed to optimize rain collection illustrates the growing interest in water efficient architecture. Designed by architectural student:

they decided to design a tower, whose structure will allow for capturing and processing as much rainfall as possible to provide ... water for its inhabitants.  ...we focused at shaping and modeling the surface of the roof to capture as much rainfall as possible. Under a roof's surface, there are water reservoirs in the form of a large funnel and reed fields, which serve as a hydro botanic water treatment unit. The unit processes water into usable water that is further transmitted to apartments. 

A network of gutters on the external surfaces of the building is designed to capture rainfall flowing down the building. such flowing rainfall is transmitted to floors and its surplus is stored in a reservoir under the building. water captured and processed by the building may be used for flushing toilets, feeding washing machines, watering plants, cleaning floors and other domestic applications.

As is appropriate for a student project, the design is more of an exploration of ideas than a practical scheme for construction, but suggests where design may go when water becomes part of the design program. (For the record, one of my student projects, during the 1970's, also focused on water conservation and was equally idealistic. I became so wrapped up in the theoretical implications that I never finished the presentation drawings.) 

For product managers looking into water-usage related opportunities, McGraw Hill has recently published:

Water Use in Buildings: Achieving Business Performance Benefits through Efficiency

This 40-page printed report (available as hard copy or PDF) reviews the role of water efficiency in buildings.  Among other topics, the report covers: involvement and importance of water efficiency, business benefits of water-efficient practices and methods, drivers and obstacles to water efficiency, types of water-efficient products and methods and sources of information behind product selection and use.

Charts throughout the report demonstrate detailed information and successful strategies in order to take advantage of opportunities in the water-efficiency market. For example, the top two motivators to the incorporation of water-efficient practices & products are illustrated in chart form. Energy use reduction is the number one motivator at 78%, and operating cost reduction is 84%. High-efficiency toilets, water-saving sinks, and waterless urinals are all products associated with these cost reductions.

The link between energy and water continues to become transparent and widespread. Both government drivers and the desire to lower energy costs are expected to lead to faster adoption of water-efficiency products and practices. This report finds that 85% of industry players rank water efficiency as a very important part of a green building in 2013, up from 69% in 2008.  Overall, the report research finds that water-efficient products and practices have been embraced for the green buildings of tomorrow.