Every Ukrainian who survived the Chornobyl nuclear disaster and the invasion of automobiles at the turn of the century has heard about acid and radioactive rains. Nowadays, very few people recollects of this, though every summer we are seeing more frequent downpours reminiscent of monsoons in Bangladesh. However, there is no official information about what exactly pours down on our headsga (chain mail) in honor of the ancient Slav worriers
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It is believed that rain water is perfect. Snow is collected in the mountains or in Greenland and sold for big money as drinking water. Experts claim that it contains a minimal amount of harmful impurities and is ideally digested.
“By its properties rainwater is closest to the Alpine water,” explains Director of the Institute of Human Ecology Mykhailo Kuryk. “However, such water is not recommended for everyday use even if it comes from clean areas, as it does not contain those micro-elements that the human body requires,” the expert added.
By the way, the rainwater in Greenland is clearly distinct from that of water in big cities, where a standard raindrop weighing 50 milligrams washes 16 liters of air and absorbs most of its contaminants.
For this reason, the composition of rainwater depends not only on where and when the rain has fallen and which way the wind was blowing, but also on the schedule of urban enterprises and the number of vehicles fuming in traffic jams. After all, everything that rainwater absorbs first flies in the opposite direction in the form of smoke containing sulphur, chlorine, nitrogen, fluorine and heavy metals and vapors of various organic compounds (aerosols, deodorants, diluted in water, detergents, etc.). These are the elements that could potentially fall on the heads of city slickers during a heavy summer downpour.
Rainwater collection procedure
If you think that you can collect rainwater just by putting a bowl on the sidewalk, you are gravely mistaken. For example, we listened to a very long lecture on the proper collection of precipitation to be admitted to a laboratory where rainwater is analyzed.
At least a half liter of water should be collected in a sterile container, poured into a clean plastic bottle and delivered to the laboratory for analysis within five hours. Otherwise, the sediment will fall on the bottom and the analysis will be inaccurate.
We made a rainwater collector out of wooden slats and durable polyethylene. The assembled structure (see photo) was fixed so that the rainwater would fall on the slats from the sky, not the roof, and directly into distilled water containers.
We collected rainwater in the Solomyanskiy district of Kyiv during the latest heavy rain one the night of June 21-22 and sent it to the laboratory for analysis the next morning.
Chemical enigma
The results of the analysis were ready the next day. As expected, the water was very soft (almost distilled), but it had a subtle flavor and was four times murkier than average drinking water. Though its smell was painfully familiar, even the best experts failed to identify it.
In general, our half liter of water was checked according to 40 chemical parameters, starting with transparency and color and ending with trihalogenomethanes and polyphosphates. In order to understand the chemical magic, we turned to expert chemists, physicists and ecologists. Their verdict seemed pretty encouraging.
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Fixing agent for blondes
Kyivans can relax, as there are no acid rains, at least in the heart of the nation’s capital.
Acid rain is a compound of sulphur (sulphate), nitrogen (nitrate) and chlorine (chloride) that reacted with water in the atmosphere and turned into the corresponding acids (sulphuric, nitric or hydrochloric). Those acids fall as part rainwater,” specialist of a chemical laboratory at the Kyiv National Technical University Viktor Perepechayenko told KW.
“In our water the level of nitrate is 5.38 mg/l, which is significantly lower than the allowable maximum (45 mg/l). The sulphate and chloride levels are even lower. Only 3.09 mg per liter (allowable norm – 250 mg/l) and 8 mg/l (normal – no more than 350 mg/l) were found in the water.
Simply put, the acidity of rainwater was so low that even the experts jokingly recommended rinsing one’s hair under tap water after washing it with peroxide blonde to neutralize the effect of the dyeing.
Iron on your head
Perhaps the greatest danger to human beings is the high level of heavy metals in precipitations,” said Kuryk. “Lead, for example, penetrates the brain and gives rise to retardedness. Metals get into the atmosphere through the smoke of factories and exhaust gases of automobiles. But in your rainwater only the amount of iron, the most harmless of heavy metals, is slightly excessive (0.38 mg per liter at a maximum allowable amount of 0.3 mg). It would be worse if it had exceeded the level of lead or cadmium, which by the way is quite possible these days taking into account gas density levels in Kyiv. However, according to these indicators your water is normal,” commented the expert.
Organic chemistry
“The quantity of surface-active agents (surfactants) in water are within the norm. These are the substances contained in modern household chemicals that are used for washing, cleaning and rinsing. They are also sprayed with a wide range of aerosol sprays and deodorants,” the director of the Aqua independent research center Valeriy Mezhebytskiy said.
“Be that as it may, in our rainwater the level of ammonia is one and a half times higher. The oxidability of water (7.36 mg/l at a norm of no higher than 4 mg/l) is an indication of a high concentration of organic substances in rain,” the expert added.
As it turns out, ammonia in water is no joke. When it is dissolved in water it forms ammonium hydroxide (10% solution known as liquid ammonia). In addition, ammonium hydroxide is used as a food additive (emulsifier E-527) and in the international list of bio-additives is labelled extremely hazardous. How could it get into rainwater?
“The options may be few, but most likely the source is livestock waste water,” says Kyiv ecologist Serhiy Vorontsov. “99% of ammonia contained in natural bodies of water here and in neighboring Russia and Belarus is the result of low production of culture on farms where manure is washed into rivers, dissolves and evaporates and enriches the atmosphere with ammonia,” says Vorontsov.
Scent of a motherland
The secret of the strange smell of rainwater that the laboratory failed to determine was unexpectedly discovered. A bit of manure, a little ammonia, a few milligrams of air fresheners, antiperspirants, plus a little bit of nitric and sulphuric acid to top the “bouquet”. All this is mixed with dust and exhaust fumes. One thing for sure - this is the smell of our homeland.
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