Have you tasted your tap water lately?

Let me just say- I'm a bottled water person. Have been for years, before it was posh.

Yesterday I visited my grandma, painted her bathroom for her. I do all I can for her, as she definately works within a very fixed income.
Needless to say, she's old school, and refuses to have a water filter, drink bottled water, etc.

I, of course, forgot to bring water with me and was stuck drinking from the faucet ( as I was not about to risk getting paint all over inside my car).

Let's just say- It tasted as though I'd fished it out of the toilet!
She lives in a suburb outside Detroit- which most people advocate has some of the cleanest drinking water in the country.

Well, let's just say they use the term "cleanest" loosely. Or do they?
What I tasted, I identified immediately. Chlorine. Definately chlorine.
My pool doesn;t taste as bad!

I know all about fluoride, chemicals, etc., I was just shocked at how strong it is! How is it people who drink this aren't up in arms- or have they been drinking it so long, they can no longer taste the additives?

Here's a few bits I found on chlorinated water.
www.haguewaterne.com...

Hardness of Water - Unsightly water spots on fixtures, glasses and silverware are also caused by hard water. The hardness creates soap curd which interferes with the cleaning ability of your cleaning products and causes problems such as bath tub ring. Plus, scaling builds up with hard water, and can clog pipes and fixtures.

Iron - Higher concentrations of iron can cause an objectionable taste and rust-colored staining of sinks, commodes, bath tubs, other plumbing fixtures and clothes.

pH - Low pH water (acid water) can cause damage to sinks, faucets, hot water tanks, drainage and supply lines. These problems can cause extensive repair costs or replacement.

Sulfur - Sulfur causes damage to plumbing and gives off an offensive, "rotten egg" odor.

Chlorine - Chlorine is found to be objectionable in drinking and bathing water. Chlorine that mixes with organics in water, forms trihalomethanes (THM's). THM's are reportedly cancer-causing agents.

www.iacenter.org...

Economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United States and the United Nations have created a crisis in fresh water and waste water treatment. Sanctions have kept Iraq from rebuilding a system severely damaged in the 1991 Gulf War. Sanctions forbid Iraq from maintaining and repairing the system in a timely manner. And sanctions make it impossible for Iraq to expand the system for increased population and industrial demands. The population, unable to get safe drinking water, is suffering widespread diarrhea and dysentery. The most vulnerable victims, the children, arc dying. Unable to properly treat waste water, the country is facing even more extensive medical and ecological problems in the future.

Chlorine Needed Immediately to Alleviate Crisis.

The most immediate need is for liquid chlorine to treat the fresh water and provide the entire population with safe, drinkable water. Adequate chlorination alone could eliminate a large percentage of medical cases, especially of babies and children who now fill emergency rooms at every hospital. The need for costly medical treatment (often unavailable due to sanctions for thousands with diarrhea and dysentery could disappear. Scarce medicines could go to others with non-water borne infections. Increased chlorination can save thousands of children’s' lives almost immediately.

What is wrong with this picture? Chlorine is another form of bleach.
They're bleaching drinking water?

What was the point of putting child locks on everything, so careful with toxics, if we're just giving it to our family via tap water?

I must be dense. Maybe I drank too much water as a kid.
Can someone explain this to me?

i know that in a survival situation, it is good to have some bleach on hand. You pour about 2 tbl spoons per gallon, or is it two, im not sure ( obviously i better find out) and let it sit for 12-24 hours, walla drinkable water, they say a mix of this and boiling, you boil first bleach second. i dont know the science of it, but i know it is a highly touted method.

but surely too much cant be any good. And every day drinking water isn't really survival. Know what i mean.

I haven't noticed anything strange about the water. Of course I only use it in the form of ice in my bourbon.

How often would your grandma use the taps in her house?

How often does she use that particular tap?

If the answer to one or both of those questions are not very often, this is probably why there is a strong taste in the water, because it's been sitting in the pipes for a while.

Who and why on Earth are those people responsible for our drinking water?

Why are they adding fluoride to our water? To harden our pineal glands, to render our spirits and dreams dull?

Why are they adding chlorine in our water? To Irritate our lungs, to shorten our breathes?

Why is the water acidic? To give us Diabetes?

Iron, to damage our livers?

Sulfur, What does Sulfur do?

1.Sulfur in foodstuffs has been shown to be linked to colon rectal cancer.

2.Sulfur is believed to destroy Vitamin A, as it promotes the oxidation of the conjugated double bonds, and is also known to destroy Vitamin B1..

3.Sulfur and sulfur dioxide are also known to promote allergies and accelerate the onset of allergy attacks.

Collect rain water for drinking, it is best, and contains vitamin B12! (Make sure you're not drinking acid rain water, ouch.)

Can't stand the taste of tapwater.... have to filter it, or buy spring/mineral water...

i know...I'm a hypocrite...

in a survival situation... I'd drink my own pee if i had to, so I'd certainly drink tap water too!!

The bottled water industry is worth multibillions (maybe even more).

Guess who has their hands in the money pot?

Yes, the very same people who are providing your tap water.

Life is one great big ripoff.

When will people wake up and hang these people from bridges?

I have well water (not city water) and just had it tested. They said I had the best water around. Maybe I should bottle it and start selling floride free water. You think it will work?

Drink nothing but distilled water for a week, then try every kind of "pure" water you can get your hands on. You'll notice something, distilled water is just wet, it has no taste. All others you can taste minerals, they have a deffinate taste to them, chemicals.. it feels like a grittyness on your tongue, like an after feeling. A lot of un-natural juice tastes like this as well.

I've read that although the average flouride amount in bottled water is between 0.5 and 0.03 ppm, childrens juice boxes can get up to as much as 2.5!

Aside from flouride, there are other factors of course, contaminants, the PH level.

If I could I would drink the most balanced water I could get my hands on sense it is the very essense of our life. Go for perfection, don't settle for less.

I've never felt so good as I do being as healthy as I am.

I just got a table top water distiller, rather simple design with just one button, runs you about 200 bucks I highly recommend you get your hands on the nice alluminum ones.

Anyways with this distiller they give you a little pouch of acid crystals to clean it every few distillations.

When I distill just 4 litres of water (one pot).. the whole bottom is covered in a really gross brown and white, almost looks like goo and minerals.. it stinks quite a bit as well.

Its my interpretation that if something is so vile, it's probably not the best thing to be putting in you, this is our tap water.

Even when I boil a pot of water for rice i use distilled water.

Its a joke, these water companies... this guy at work was telling me about how great this water is, the best in the world he said cuz micheal jackson drinks it. .. meanwhile it has a nice flouride content.

These bottles, from 1.5 litres cost about 6 bucks!! for water!
Meanwhile you can guy a jug of distilled water, 4 litres or a gallon worth for $1.30.

I joked the other week because my boss brings us bottles of water, and I noted that there was distilled water in the office, I asked and my supervisor said it was for the batteries of the scissorlift. I said, "the skyjack drinks better water then we do!"

I am aware that they say our body needs minerals, but there are other ways to get them, i'll stick with the purest water I can get and worry about getting the minerals some other way.

Some people will take it to the grave though, the safety of tap water. If you put a little carbon filter on the sink, in their mind it becomes a perfect. Never mind the fact its pumped from the lake for tonnes of the most vile toix wastes are dumped.

Ah well..



EDIT: also I might add that theres a high rate of kidney stones in toronto area apparently.

[edit on 30-1-2009 by CavemanDD]

Yes I have.

And it tastes like a combination of chemicals.

Probably ones that are not good for me.

That is why I try and refrain from drinking tap water.

reply to post by orderedchaos


I hear ya, I haven't had tap water in 10+years but occasionally I'm stuck at someones house in a similar situation, I just have to pretend I don't notice how bad it tastes, it's horrible nationwide that I've noticed, wouldn't be surprised if it reduces your lifespan, population control? I don't know, but I always use a good filter even if I'm making a bowl of ramen.

reply to post by CavemanDD


Distilled water is super bad for you!
It can cause your blood cells to lyse and can deprive your body of minerals that it needs.
www.chetday.com...
healthinmotion.wordpress.com...

I mean, that's what I was always taught.
I have well water.
Distilled water is not the same as purified water or bottled water.
I think doing it yourself may be okay, but by no means drink the jugs of distilled water that they sell.

[edit on 1/30/2009 by ravenshadow13]

reply to post by orderedchaos


i agree totally with everything you said about the water itself. it tasts stronger then the pool. but sinc e im young, i am stuck drinking the tapwater.

Those are interesting sites and thanks for bringing them to my attention but by saying its super bad is I think a tad misleading.

Its like blank, pure h2o, you just gotta compensate for what your missing. I get calcium I know that much, magnesium - once in a while I'll try new multi-mineral pills. I'm more concerned and interested about minerals then vitamins.

As for what they say about body acidity, I think i'm ok based on what they say, i dont eat or drink what they listed, and I couldnt be more stress free. Further more despite what anyone thinks, I dont have the science but I feel meditations keep me in a certain bodily equilibrium.

I am interested in altering the PH level of my water eventually, I know there are such devices.

Again, I have to say its misleading to say pure h20 is bad, how could it be? Just because it doesn't what it's usually accompanied with?

It really is a shame minerals arent as easily acceptable. I think if they were we'd all be living a lot longer and better, mineral defficiency is supposedly the cause of many bodily problems.

Interesting sites, and I will take note of it and possibly make a better effort to compensate, but i dont have the diet or lifestyle of the average person either.

Yes, I have, we have really bad water here, but when I bought my filter, I didn't notice till I got home that it said "Leaves Beneficial Flouride In The Water". Then I bought some fish, betas, and I figured putting the filtered water along with the water conditioner would be okay. PHHHT, that one died, but I thought it was because of where I bought it, it had parasites, just overnight. Then, I bought one at a reliable place, and just overnight again, parasites, I felt so bad, and yes, I bleached the tank for days before I got another one. So I went and bought some distilled water for the 3rd one, he's been fine since. But, that tells me that I've been drinking those nasty things and this nasty water. So after that, I fianlly started getting myself the culligan at the filler. No problems since.

The site also mentions carbon filters to make distilled water alkaline which my distiller has.

I'm safe man!

I dont eat meat, (just fish), I dont drink soda, processed or fried foods, but I do enjoy my dairy.

Interesting about the charcoal, they only stated it was for "taste and to remove odours" in my packaging.

reply to post by CavemanDD


No, I mean, I think it's okay if you do it yourself.
I'm pretty sure you can get really sick from drinking distilled water because your cells absorb it and lyse. We learned about it in biology, I don't remember all of the information.

My mom is a nurse and vouches that it can get you sick.


I bet you're fine. I just know when my dad worked with distilling things for pharmaceutical companies, it was like, don't drink that stuff it will get you really sick.

I will try to get my hands on my old biology textbook for you.

I hear what your saying and I appreciate your concern and desire to help.

I think what I'm trying to say though is just because distilled water is missing something, does that make it harmful?

The issue being thats its missing something that helps the body deal with other influences we do to it.

You know what I mean. They're just implying that its missing something that would generally help the body cope with other balancing.

I try to balance the best I can, its difficult with my budget and lack of knowledge.

'Distilled water is good for purification and drawing out disease etc etc.' - good!

I hear what your saying about store bought ones though. They mentioned something about the ozonation which i'm not clear on, i say this because the ones I used to buy did have ozone, i don't think they had been filtered through carbon like my counter-top one does.

Water is just one means to get minerals, it would be nice to get it another way like a nice fresh creek untouched by mankind, but some of us live in the filthy city and value our pineal glands and kidneys!

I'm interested in learning what kind of foods if any are alkaline.

After any time I indulge in the white stuff. My nose and the nose of my friends are ultra sensitive to the chlorine in our water. Normally I cant even smell it, but after a party night Ill step in the shower and Bam, its like someone is throwing a bucket of chlorine at me.

A friend of mine recently was attempting to look after a lobster for a school science experiment. She thought she had been doing everything right in regard to salt,pH etc.. but it still died after a few days. She asked her prof why and he said that they could do an experiment to see what the cause of death was but he already knew... Chlorine poisoning.

I grew up hooked directly into an "Artesian Well". That water was great, puts my Brita to shame.

Peace



[edit on 30-1-2009 by TheRealDonPedros]

Distilled water is fine for your health, Read this article it explains in more detail. It removes flouride, chlorine and other dangerous toxins, Makes sense they tell you its bad for your health.
www.freshwateruk.com...

Distilled water helps to dissolve the toxic poisons that accumulate in our bodies, helping to clean out the body cells, organs and fluids. Assisting in the elimination of these toxins and wastes through the kidneys, it passes through the kidneys without leaving inorganic pebbles and stones. Distillation kills bacteria and viruses and removes complex chemicals, heavy dangerous inorganic substances, pesticides, chlorine and flourides. The Department of Agriculture stated 'the only proven method of correcting cooking and drinking water pollution in the home is through the use of a home water distiller'.