Is my GRP water-tank poisoning me?

[jsl]

YM says it 'can pose a high risk to human health.' Who am I to doubt? But how high is the risk - and risk of what?

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

http://www.tanks-direct.co.uk/grp_tanks

GRP cold water tanks, potable, one piece, two piece and sectional water tanks, WRAS approved water storage tanks.

So, some GRP tanks are WRAS approved for potable water..

Where and why did YM state that it might be killing you? links are everything, well after pictures that is.

 

[Poignard]

Mine is taking its time killing us. The Old Guvnor and I have been drinking the water from the GRP keel tank and cleaning our teeth with it for 3-4 months every year since we bought the boat 19 years ago.

 

[Tranona]

Old GRP may not have been made with food grade resin, or coated. Also can suffer from osmosis. Not used now for boats as in the cheaper end of mass production replaced by rotationally moulded plastic and in small volume or custom by fabricated plastic or metal, usually stainless.

 

[jsl]

Further to my original question: YM Sept. edition page 28 refers. And let's assume that the 40-year-old tank has some osmosis even if it's out of sight.
I, too, have been drinking this water all those years, and my father likewise - but not for quite so long because he's dead.
So how long have I got, doctor?

 

[LittleSister]

I worried about the osmosis thing some decades ago when I had a GRP tank with blisters in it (old school construction, part of boat inner moulding and very unlikely to be food grade), and read all I could on the subject in PBO and eslewhere. I eventually read and accepted (rightly or wrongly) that osmosis did not cause a health risk until a blister burst, and once it did so the taste/smell would be obvious in the water.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Osmosis is water diffusing into the GRP, not the GRP leaching nasties into the water, surely.

 

[Tranona]

Osmosis is water diffusing into the GRP, not the GRP leaching nasties into the water, surely.

But if the blisters burst the styrene will get into the water. You can get food grade epoxy for coating the inside of tanks.

 

[JumbleDuck]

But if the blisters burst the styrene will get into the water.

'Spose so. Do they often burst, absent mechanical stimulation? We have a GRP water tank in the house. I am still alive.

 

[macd]

Blisters can burst due to nothing more than the osmotic pressure within them. And whatever complex of chemicals is inside them (way beyond my grasp of chemistry), it's not just styrene.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Blisters can burst due to nothing more than the osmotic pressure within them. And whatever complex of chemicals is inside them (way beyond my grasp of chemistry), it's not just styrene.

It's mainly water, isn't it, by definition ... ? Mind you, the ones I have encountered smelled strongly of acetic acid.

 

[EdWingfield]

For anyone seriously concerned if their water is fit to drink you need it tested. I'd recommend you look up your local Public Analyst and pay a visit. Explain the situation. The PA will equip you with sample bottle(s) and instruct you exactly how to take the sample. The PA will know the chemical(s) s/he is to look for. Be guided by him.

It will cost you. But you will have certainty.

 

[macd]

It's mainly water, isn't it, by definition ... ?

I'm sure that's right. But so's a pint of heavy with just a dash of strychnine
(I've not seen the article and really have no idea what the health effects of blister liquid might be.)

 

[ex-Gladys]

If I were to make a wild guess based on no facts, I suspect you're probably more likely to be a single national lottery jackpot winner twice over than die from your water... Of course, to make the odds even more unlikely, fit a General Ecology drinking water filter, not connected with the company, just a very happy user

 

[vyv_cox]

Sadler 34s have a moulded water tank, although my inspection suggests that there is either a flowcoat or epoxy lining to it. I thought that the poor tasting water was sourced at the tank but changing the hoses proved otherwise. A General Ecology fiter helps too.

 

[jsl]

OK. So styrene is bad for us. But how bad? Compared, say, with diesel fumes when motoring downwind. Or bacon twice a week. And would a filter remove it?

 

[macd]

OK. So styrene is bad for us. But how bad? Compared, say, with diesel fumes when motoring downwind. Or bacon twice a week. And would a filter remove it?

Haven't read the article, but is it claiming that the content of osmotic blisters is styrene? They may contain some styrene, but mostly a complex of other chemicals.

 

[jsl]

No, the article just makes the broad statement that I quoted. So would those 'other chemicals' be poisons? And if so, at what concentrations? Or are they like asbestos, just waiting their chance to knock us over?