Plastics dont melt into the water, the sun breaks down chemicals that are in the plastic and the chemicals leech into the water. There are plenty of plastics that dont leech from UV rays. So Im not sure if it the plastic balls would leech anything, I doubt they would. If they wanted to put chemicals into the water they could do it in a better less obvious way.
That being said, the cheapest plastics are also the ones that tend to leech.
Not sure whether this is dangerous but breaking down at all should definitely be a concern (and currently isn't - no mentions at all in any MSM of how soon they have to replace them. That alone is suspicious!)
The same PDF states that a geomembrane (sheet) UV degredation test in BC has been going for 8.5 years and shows no signs of wear, but that's just a piece of plastic on an inclined piece of wood, not 96 million (potentially cheaply made) balls floating in a hot pond.
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vanities ago
Is there any real evidence that plastic melts into the water?
IFightPolarBears ago
Plastics dont melt into the water, the sun breaks down chemicals that are in the plastic and the chemicals leech into the water. There are plenty of plastics that dont leech from UV rays. So Im not sure if it the plastic balls would leech anything, I doubt they would. If they wanted to put chemicals into the water they could do it in a better less obvious way.
That being said, the cheapest plastics are also the ones that tend to leech.
CredAndBercuses ago
Photons in the UV range break down the C-H bonds in HDPE. I mentioned this in the reddit post
Not sure whether this is dangerous but breaking down at all should definitely be a concern (and currently isn't - no mentions at all in any MSM of how soon they have to replace them. That alone is suspicious!)
The same PDF states that a geomembrane (sheet) UV degredation test in BC has been going for 8.5 years and shows no signs of wear, but that's just a piece of plastic on an inclined piece of wood, not 96 million (potentially cheaply made) balls floating in a hot pond.