On the Way to the Water Cooler – More Strange Spills

On the Way to the Water Cooler – More Strange Spills

Quite some time ago we recounted stories of some of the oddest recorded road spills around the globe. Read about them here.

Time for an update we thought. So off we flew to the ether gathering information. Turns out, the best spill stories happen to come from an unexpected source!

20 tonnes of yeast extract

*A lot of yeast extract ended up across the M1 in South Yorkshire in 2011.

Specialist clean-up teams were needed to help clear the sticky black stuff off the motorway. It took 12 hours to clean up and fix the damage.

Thousands of lager cans

When a lorry shed its load of lager cans following an incident in Coventry in 2011, highways teams had to pick up every beverage by hand before reopening the motorway.

Powdered cement

Cement poses problems after a motorway spill. Specialist teams were called out to help clear the road before the cement could get wet and start to set. It eventually took 18 hours to clear the road.

I suppose, in this sea of rather sticky accounts of spills and mishaps, it’s nice to know that should your water cooler malfunction to such a degree, the worst thing spilling will be water – really not hard to clean up and no sticky, messy residue.

Even better and more reassuring though is that as per WHA guidelines, AquAid’s WHA accredited service technicians sanitise all bottle-fed water coolers every 3 months and all mains-fed water dispensers every 6 months, thus ensuring these high-quality water dispensers continue with their seamless delivery of refreshing drinking water.

*source: from an article at GOV.UK

AquAid Water Health – Drinking water in summer – watch those kidneys!

AquAid Water Health – Drinking water in summer – watch those kidneys!

By now you may have noticed that at AquAid we’re more upbeat about things in general – we certainly don’t believe in being proponents of all things doom and gloom. That said, however, with decades of water provision under our belts, we’ve learnt a thing or two about how vitally important it is to keep yourself sufficiently hydrated, come rain or shine.

This may lead us to bang on a bit about the importance of drinking water, we know, but that’s because it really is that important – especially for your overall health and well-being.

So summer is here, and we’re all gadding about in our summer gear, the sun is shining, we’re hanging about outside during our breaks, shooting the breeze, soaking up the sun – and we may be a bit more inclined to forget about how much water we should be drinking.

Enter stage mid-section, a rather persistent, nagging pain in your lower back. And it gets worse. The next thing you know, the pain has ramped up from worrisome to excruciating.  Without realising it, by not drinking enough water, you may have kidney stones – and in the summer months, especially at the peak of summer in July – the incidences of kidney stones increase significantly:

According to Bhaskar Somani, associate professor of urology at the University of Southampton, and a consultant urological surgeon at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, “habitual non-drinkers of water” were at particular risk.

He spoke out following his team’s study of more than two million patients worldwide, which found a strong association between warm weather and kidney stone disease.

The research, which included data from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, New Zealand and America, showed there were more admissions in July – when the temperature was hottest at 25C or above – than any other month of the year.

“This is the largest study of kidney stone data and it shows a definite and strong link between warm weather and kidney stones, with most admissions occurring during July,” said Mr Somani, a senior author on the paper, which was published in the Journal of Endourology.

“Although a combination of obesity, poor hydration, high blood pressure and a lack of exercise is responsible for stone development, the current hot weather ahead of July could cause cases in England to rocket next month.”

Now, as we’ve already said, we’re rarely about bad news, however, we also believe that forewarned is forearmed. Also, the good news is that maintaining good health can really be as simple as keeping up your water intake, as mentioned, whatever the weather.

If you’d like to know more about how easy it is to ensure you keep yourself, your staff, or your school in tip top water condition, please speak to us at AquAid. We’d love to assist with all your water, bottled and mains fed water dispenser requirements.