For millennia, man has yearned to block the sun (with black plastic balls). If an un-covered public water reservoir contains bromide, sunlight will combine the bromide with the chlorine used for reducing bacteria -- thus poisoning the water with carcinogenic bromate. Blocking the sunlight is the answer, but building a permanent cover for a huge reservoir is very costly. The solution for LA-area reservoirs, a few years ago: cover the entire water surface with millions of floating "bird balls", in effect turning the reservoir into a 10+ acre ball pit. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten on Oct 30, 2011 - 46 comments

Coca Cola pulls Dasani from UK shelves after it is found to contain Bromate, a highly carcinogenic derivative of Bromide. The US formula isn't wildly different. What's in your water?
posted by omidius on Mar 20, 2004 - 38 comments