10 shampoo and soap (Read 11742 times)
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Re: shampoo and soap
Reply #10 - Jun 25th, 2010 at 2:12pm
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azalea wrote on Jun 25th, 2010 at 3:53am:
To go along with DB's comment above, I suspect the non-soap rinse contributed almost as many contaminants as a rinse with soap would produce.  Which in neither case is a problem.  But I realize most do not share my opinion.

How do you figure?  Sweat & grime vs. sweat & grime & soap.  Are sweat & grime contaminants?
  
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azalea
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Re: shampoo and soap
Reply #11 - Jun 25th, 2010 at 8:11pm
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Are sweat & grime contaminants?


While wikipedia is a mediocore source of info, it states sweat contains the following.
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It also contains minerals, as well as lactate and urea. Mineral composition will vary with the individual, the acclimatisation to heat, exercise and sweating, the particular stress source (exercise, sauna, etc.), the duration of sweating, and the composition of minerals in the body. An indication of the minerals content is: sodium 0.9 gram/liter, potassium 0.2 gram/liter, calcium 0.015 gram/liter, magnesium 0.0013 gram/liter[10]. Also many other trace elements are excreted in sweat, again an indication of their concentration is (although measurements can vary fifteenfold): zinc (0.4 mg/l), copper  (0.3 - 0.8 mg/l), iron (1 mg/l), chromium  (0.1 mg/l), nickel (0.05 mg/l), lead (0.05 mg/l).


But we are not just talking sweat.  Depending on the person, there may also be things like sun-screen and bug repellent.  There may be chemicals transfered to the skin from clothing, packs, fuel canisters, paddles, etc. Not to mention, the residue left over in the bodily function areas (yuck).

Again I am not saying this is a problem, because we are talking such small quantitites in a big watershed.  But the same applies to the impact of soap, which although maybe amounts to higher mass than those things washed off our bodies, may only contain "natural vegetable-derived ingredients" (camp soap). Even something like ivory soap has pretty benign ingredients.
  
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nctry_Ben
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Re: shampoo and soap
Reply #12 - Jun 25th, 2010 at 10:06pm
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I live right next to our town beach, and it's always surprizing to me how long it takes for soap or shampoo to dilute with the water. It's not that often someone baths like that, but when they do they usually leave a scum that lasts a couple days sometimes. I don't see the problem with rinsing inland any soaps whether body or dishes. It takes over a year for bio soaps to break down, I wonder how long it takes for other soaps. The BW is used a lot, and if everyone bathed in the lakes and put thier dish soap in the lakes I think it would have an impact.
  
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Joe_Schmeaux
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Re: shampoo and soap
Reply #13 - Jun 26th, 2010 at 9:58pm
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Here's another vote for bathing well away from the lakeshore.

"Biodegradable" just means there's something out there which will eat it to some degree. It doesn't mean that the chemical compound in question will magically disappear, either quickly, or before it gets ingested by something which cannot metabolize it.

Intuition isn't much help in determining what constitutes "insignificant" either. Here's a link to a study done a couple of years ago on endocrine-disrupting compounds in Minnesota lakes:

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They found significant (typically 0.01-0.1 ppb) levels of DEET in ALL of the lakes and rivers sampled, including the supposedly-pristine (no surrounding development) lakes they had hoped to use as a reference.

It's a long report, and mostly about compounds other than DEET. But at least now you will know where pollyhumpers come from.

For the record, I am a chemical engineer, and no more of a tree-hugger than you would expect to find on these boards.
  
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kheya shunka
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Re: shampoo and soap
Reply #14 - Jun 27th, 2010 at 5:44am
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boiling water cleans the dishes..

these clean the integrated nav/propulsion unit...

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use one a day right before bed (body parts in proper sequence  Tongue)...  they pack in and out easy.. two packages will last longer than me on a trip...
  
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PhantomJug
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Re: shampoo and soap
Reply #15 - Jun 27th, 2010 at 7:47pm
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I've got my wilderness bath down to 4 baby wipes myself.
  
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