is drinking unfiltered water *REALLY* bad?

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: mrrman
the water is treated with chlorine..the filters remove the metals and minerals to an extent...drinking unfiltered water is fine unless you live in Mexico

Drinking filtered water is actually worse for you. You don't get the necessary minerals and salts/ions needed.

That's BS. You get that stuff from food. I drink tapwater but I don't like that it has fluoride. Ingesting a substance so that it flows over your teeth, for which there is no long term study (which would be impossible) on the effects on your organs and brain... Bad

 

[RU482]

paranoia is likely much worse for your health than tap water

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: DEMO24
unless your pipes are made of lead..drink up!

If you're in the Eastern US, that is a possibilty somewhere between the treatment plant and your tap

 

[Leros]

My neighbor drank tap water once. He melted Raiders of the Lost Ark style.

 

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: mrrman
the water is treated with chlorine..the filters remove the metals and minerals to an extent...drinking unfiltered water is fine unless you live in Mexico

Drinking filtered water is actually worse for you. You don't get the necessary minerals and salts/ions needed.

You're talking about distilled water, not filtered.

 

[FoBoT]

all public drinking water is treated and safe
all that extra crap is just extra crap

 

[nageov3t]

tap water ftw.

only reason I even keep bottled water around is because it's easy to grab on the go, already cold.

 

[vi edit]

Safe or not, some public water just tastes horrible. Some tastes like it was pumped out of a pool, some tastes like it got scooped out of a mud puddle. Usually bottled water is pretty neutral tasting...or has no taste. The way water should be.

Plus not *all* city water is safe. A small town near me has had boil orders almost on a weekly basis the last year and a half. They have terribly outdated water lines that are constantly being repaired. Any time you have to open up a line to fix it you have to boil. I know two separate times in my home town growing up where we had bugs that got into the water tower and laid eggs. Our tap water had worms in it. YUMMY!

Regulations or not, stuff happens. Your tap water won't kill you, but that doesn't mean that it won't taste like crap or be prone to problems.

 

[Throckmorton]

By the way, only recently were lead pipes banned... I think the 80s or 90s. Lead pipes still are not banned in the UK.

 

[Canai]

The water I drink is either double or triple filtered. Last year the city (Madison) suddenly realized that the manganese content of the water in a couple wells was waaaaaay above federal guidelines and they actually gave out bottled water to people in the affected area. They say the water is 'safe', but the water that comes into my house from the city system is brown. I absolutely will not drink any unfiltered water from the tap here.

There's a whole house filter, a reverse osmosis filter on the tap, and then it goes into a Brita pitcher

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Canai
The water I drink is either double or triple filtered. Last year the city (Madison) suddenly realized that the manganese content of the water in a couple wells was waaaaaay above federal guidelines and they actually gave out bottled water to people in the affected area. They say the water is 'safe', but the water that comes into my house from the city system is brown. I absolutely will not drink any unfiltered water from the tap here.

There's a whole house filter, a reverse osmosis filter on the tap, and then it goes into a Brita pitcher

Yeah just because regulations say it has to be safe, doesn't mean it is. And that's assuming you trust the regulations 100%.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
Tap water has stricter standards than bottled water. It also has fluoride.

do you know when flouridation first started, mandrake? 1946. how's that for your post-war communist expansion conspiracies?

That's why I only drink rain water and pure grain alcohol.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

finally, someone! thank you!

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

It's pretty disgusting in Atlanta, I've seen it come out of the tap BROWN before. We use a Brita filter or get bottled.

 

[trmiv]

I don't drink tap water because it tastes bad. Also your city could have good water, but if you live in apartment complex with crappy pipes, or a house with bad pipes, it could be pretty bad. For example, when I lived in Fremont, CA I used to live in this old crappy apartment complex. I keep reef aquariums so I have a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter that I use to test my RO/DI water. When I tested the tap at that old apartment it tested to just over 450 tds! After a year we moved into a 5 year old complex across the street, when I tested that water with the same meter it was only 103 tds. Same exact city water, but because it wasn't going through old, nasty, gunky pipes, it had significantly less dissolved solids.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: sandorski
We should all be drinking this though, it's what we crave

It has electrolytes! It's what plants crave!

 

[natto fire]

I hope not, because refilling a Brita pitcher is a pain in the ass, and the tap water here tastes just fine.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: mrrman
the water is treated with chlorine..the filters remove the metals and minerals to an extent...drinking unfiltered water is fine unless you live in Mexico

Drinking filtered water is actually worse for you. You don't get the necessary minerals and salts/ions needed.

I think foods will contain what is needed, that's a null point, IMO.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete
It's pretty disgusting in Atlanta, I've seen it come out of the tap BROWN before. We use a Brita filter or get bottled.

That actually sulfur and its not unsafe. Just let the water run for about 15 seconds and it should stop.

 

[NoShangriLa]

Tap water generally is safe to drink, however there are times that the municipality water board will post a warning that require boiling and/or filter tap water to be potable due to rupture water main or dirty reservoir during rainy season.

Filtered water is mainly for better tasting water & to safeguard your water during the poor water warning periods.

Try Sears or your local appliance dealers and request information regard replacement filters for the model/make of you refrigerator.

Fridgefilters.com

WaterFilterMart.com

 

[biggestmuff]

How many ATOTers does it take to answer a question?

 

[BUTCH1]

Originally posted by: shinerburke

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
Tap water has stricter standards than bottled water. It also has fluoride.

do you know when flouridation first started, mandrake? 1946. how's that for your post-war communist expansion conspiracies?

That's why I only drink rain water and pure grain alcohol.

Dr. Strangelove, right??

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
Tell me you aren't serious...

All municipal water systems in the US follow strict regulations.

All are not equal quality. The basic regulations are pretty lax. Also not everyone is on city water.

I always filter my water or buy it that way. It's a small price to pay even if it comes from another municipal source. I don't have to worry about a ruptured line making me sick or something worse.

By the time the water gets to me any issues with it are known.

My animals also drink only filtered/bought water.

Just the taste alone is much better.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I an't see how it can be worse than the water people drank for thousands of years before modern plumbing.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
I an't see how it can be worse than the water people drank for thousands of years before modern plumbing.

and before chemical runoff.