is my tap water safe to drink?

[Donut417]

I stopped trusting municipal water when Flint Michigan happened. I drink bottled or filtered at very least. At work I drink the water out of the pop machine only because I know it has to go thru 3 filters before it reaches the machine. 

 

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Flint+Michigan+Water+Crisis&FORM=FRESET

 

I don't trust Water Treatment workers to do anything 

I see you talking about Flint. It has nothing to do with Water Treatment workers. It had to do with the Emergency Manager of Flint being a cheap bastard. All he had to do is authorize some detergent to be put in to the water to keep it safe, OR stay on Detroit water until Flint built the new pipe line to the new water source. This was purely a Government fuck up. Many blame Governor Snyder for this, but I blame the Emergency Manger. Also, the city council could also be blamed for not doing their fucking job and have to have the Governor appoint an Emergency manager. 

 

But you could also blame Detroit as  they charged us folk in Wayne county a lot less than people outside the county. This is why you dont put a city in charge of the water for a good part of the state. This is also the reason Detroit no longer controls the water, and why the Great lakes water authority exists. They basically bled Flint dry. 

[Speed Weed]

3 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Depending who's selling the water and their equipment and if they passed sanitary certification from authorities

The one my parent has is Primo. 

[spartaman64]

3 hours ago, IAnthonyFX said:

yes it can ^^! hypotonic fluids can make your cells explote. and that is no fun at all, we are talking deonized water level of purity which is fairly easy to do

thats only if you drink like gallons of water in a short time

[Coaxialgamer]

6 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

No, it has lead in it. Lead stunts brain growth and neural connections being made. 

As @pangea2017 said 

Quote

Good luck finding lead free water. AAS or MS will find in any water lead.

Lead, as any naturally occurring substance, will be find in water in some quantity, there's simply no avoiding that, and there has been since the beginning of time, before we started dumping pollutants into our streams. Therefore our body has some level of resistance towards it. 

What matters here is that the quantities involved aren't high enough to cause damage over the long term. As seen, even average tapwater contains some amount of lead, and hundreds of millions of people drink it every day. 

I'd be more concerned if he found a significant quantity of mercury in the water supply... 

[Coaxialgamer]

3 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I stopped trusting municipal water when Flint Michigan happened. I drink bottled or filtered at very least. At work I drink the water out of the pop machine only because I know it has to go thru 3 filters before it reaches the machine. 

 

I see you talking about Flint. It has nothing to do with Water Treatment workers. It had to do with the Emergency Manager of Flint being a cheap bastard. All he had to do is authorize some detergent to be put in to the water to keep it safe, OR stay on Detroit water until Flint built the new pipe line to the new water source. This was purely a Government fuck up. Many blame Governor Snyder for this, but I blame the Emergency Manger. Also, the city council could also be blamed for not doing their fucking job and have to have the Governor appoint an Emergency manager. 

 

But you could also blame Detroit as  they charged us folk in Wayne county a lot less than people outside the county. This is why you dont put a city in charge of the water for a good part of the state. This is also the reason Detroit no longer controls the water, and why the Great lakes water authority exists. They basically bled Flint dry. 

To be fair, during the incident, lead levels were considerably higher than what we are talking here, with concentrations well above 20ppb (spikes up to 100+ ppb) and more critically, the 15ppb Federal limit. Not to mention a whole suite of heavy metals and other pollutants coming directly from the flint river. 

 

 

[spartaman64]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

To be fair, during the incident, lead levels were considerably higher than what we are talking here, with concentrations well above 20ppb and more critically, the 15ppb Federal limit. Not to mention a whole suite of heavy metals and other pollutants coming directly from the flint river. 

 

 

i thought it was mostly to do with the pipes being corroded. it doesnt matter how well the water treatment facility treats the water if the pipes from the facility to the homes are the source of contamination

[Coaxialgamer]

16 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

i thought it was mostly to do with the pipes being corroded. it doesnt matter how well the water treatment facility treats the water if the pipes from the facility to the homes are the source of contamination

Both, actually. 

While the pipes certainly didn't help, the major problem still remained the flint river itself and poor treatment however. 

There is a statewide effort to replace the old lead pipes in flint. 

 

It's worth noting that from 1967 to 2013, before the switch to the flint river as main water source, these pipes were still there and weren't causing any significant problems. 

 

No, the issue stemmed from cost cutting mesures enacted by the flint administration that preceded the incident, not to mention constant denial and obstruction after the water pollution was clearly demonstrated. 

Stuff like legionnaire's disease was clearly not caused by corroded pipes either. 

[Teddy07]

17 hours ago, Coaxialgamer said:

It's probably fine.

Looking purely at lead content , it's well within the margins set by the EPA

1

EPA is full of shit. There is no safe limit of lead.

I wouldn´t even use this water for meals or shower.

[mr moose]

8 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

EPA is full of shit. There is no safe limit of lead.

I wouldn´t even use this water for meals or shower.

EPA says 15 is fine and Germany says 10 is fine, whats 5ppb between friends?

EDIT: in fact the rest of the world seems to think 10 is fine.

[Amazonsucks]

7 hours ago, mr moose said:

you concluded through logic and reasoning that the people who test the water and control water treatment,  have no idea the quality of the water they treat?

Not everyone who is supposed to know better actually does. I agree with him/her that assuming they do is a sheep mentality.

 

Also the water can vary from place to place within an area and isnt perfectly constant over time either. Water and air filters are a simple inexpensive way to improve quality of life and health. 

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Not everyone who is supposed to know better actually does. I agree with him/her that assuming they do is a sheep mentality.

 

Also the water can vary from place to place within an area and isnt perfectly constant over time either. Water and air filters are a simple inexpensive way to improve quality of life and health. 

Perhaps you should try reading the rest of the thread where that "him/her" you agree with attested to the validity of my comment in more than one post.  Rather than trolling me with accusations of being a sheep, because if you had read the thread you would have realised that Dr mac did not in fact call anyone a sheep. .

[Phentos]

Personally I avoid unfiltered tap water as much as I can. I live in an old house that no doubt contains some lead piping somewhere. My landlord has owned the house for decades and cannot afford to have all of the piping replaced, so a lot of it is old. 

 

I either drink bottled (no not Dasani gray water) or I use a high end reverse osmosis filtration system my dad got me from his employer (water softener company).

 

When I have children I'm going to go out of my way to make sure lead and other heavy metals are as close to zero ppb as I can manage. Call me obsessive or paranoid, but it's my call.

[Amazonsucks]

3 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Perhaps you should try reading the rest of the thread where that "him/her" you agree with attested to the validity of my comment in more than one post.  Rather than trolling me with accusations of being a sheep, because if you had read the thread you would have realised that Dr mac did not in fact call anyone a sheep. .

I didnt call you a sheep. I said that assuming that people know what theyre doing just because theyre supposed to is having a sheep mentality. 

 

Just because someone has a job somewhere doesnt mean they actually "know better" in many cases. And if they do, they might simply not care. Im sure plenty of doctors smoke and drink. Does that then indicate its healthy? 

 

Its flawed logic to say something along the lines of "well if its good enough for them it must be good enough for me". 

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, Amazonsucks said:

I didnt call you a sheep. I said that assuming that people know what theyre doing just because theyre supposed to is having a sheep mentality. 

 

Just because someone has a job somewhere doesnt mean they actually "know better" in many cases. And if they do, they might simply not care. Im sure plenty of doctors smoke and drink. Does that then indicate its healthy? 

 

Its flawed logic to say something along the lines of "well if its good enough for them it must be good enough for me". 

please read the conversation.

[Amazonsucks]

6 hours ago, mr moose said:

So then what I said stands true.  If the workers at the plant or those who manage it refuse to drink the water or won't let their families drink it then it's probably not safe to drink.  If they do drink it, it is becasue they are confident it is being tested properly and being treated accordingly.

I did read it.

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

Meanwhile in the UK, right column is uk/eu limit

[spartaman64]

i have a friend in new york who looked up his water and its obviously better than mine lol

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

Meanwhile in the UK, right column is uk/eu limit

And here's NZ standards:

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/drinking-water-standards-2008-jun14.pdf

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

59 minutes ago, leadeater said:

-snip-

Yeah but you have to deal with living in NZ  /S

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

Yeah but you have to deal with living in NZ  /S

True, I can just go outside, look at the sky, open my mouth and fill it with rain water. Rains a heck of a lot here lol.

[captain_to_fire]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

And here's NZ standards:

https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/drinking-water-standards-2008-jun14.pdf

How I wish I could get employment in New Zealand... 

 

...oh no wait I tried in 2015 but failed... 

[AskTJ]

I would get a water filter if you are concerned.

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

How I wish I could get employment in New Zealand... 

 

...oh no wait I tried in 2015 but failed... 

Like all places, there's plenty of downsides here not just sun shine (in fact very little), rainbows and hobbits.

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

31 minutes ago, leadeater said:

True, I can just go outside, look at the sky, open my mouth and fill it with rain water. Rains a heck of a lot here lol.

I'd love to visit NZ actually, i've been looking into doing the hobbit trail, would be an adventure and a half

[captain_to_fire]

7 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Like all places, there's plenty of downsides here not just sun shine (in fact very little), rainbows and hobbits.

I'm aware that every country has their downsides and problems. I gotta say NZ's immigration website is the best looking one I've ever seen. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas