I’ve always been under the childlike impression that my tap water is clean clean, but when thinking about it today I realised that it’s unlikely that tap water is completely sterile, certainly not by the time it reaches my house through miles of pipes. So, just how unsterile can it be and still pass muster with the local government?
If we accept a certain number of rodent hairs or cockroach shells in each helping of our processed foods, I can only imagine what’s considered acceptable when it comes to tap water.
For reference, I’m in N. Ireland, which is, regrettably, the UK. But obviously the island of Ireland is where my water comes from. From this nightmarish swamp, to be precise.
Stay moist, hydrohomos.
Like, so much insanely cleaner than your food.
Sewers are the giant pipes with all that air at the top.
Your water pipes are filled almost the entire time, and the trunks are literally constantly flowing. There’s little to no air for anything to grow with, and at the very beginning there’s almost no bacteria since it’s treated water being pumped in. All on top of the that copper is a natural sterilizer.
Also, whatever few microorganisms there are won’t generally do very well because there’s not much for them to consume.
But there are some, which is why you should always use distilled water instead of tap water when it’s important to avoid microorganisms such as with nasal irrigation.
It’s a bit safer to use freshly boiled water. You can contaminate distilled water if you keep it around long enough.
But don’t be drinking distilled water or it will pull all the minerals out of your body. Like iron etc.
Now the question is, if these pipes didn’t always have treated water flowing through them (but say sea water), can they ever be considered clean afterwards? Is there a way to clean the existing pipe system?