Tap Water: As clean and pure as you think?
Is your tap water really clean?
Water is essential to life. While millions die each year in other countries due to a scarcity of clean water, here in Australia we are fortunate to have water available to us from every tap in the house. Clean, safe drinking water is something that many of us living in Australia take for granted, but how clean is it really?
If you have ever been overseas to India, Africa or Asia, you will know that Australian tap water is pretty safe in comparison, however, as a result of pollution, the water in Australia isn’t as pure and clean as it could or should be. The waters surrounding Australia’s coastline are increasingly threatened by pollution due to such things as industrial wastes, treated and untreated sewage as well as general rubbish like cigarette butts. Studies even show that illicit drug residues such as methamphetamine and MDMA and residues of prescription drugs can be found in our water.
For this reason, Australian water needs to undergo methods such as settling, coagulation, filtering and disinfection to make it palatable and clean for us to drink. However just because water undergoes all these processing methods it doesn’t necessarily mean that the water is pure or clean. Far from it: More than 35 different chemicals are approved for use in drinking water to make it safe and palatable for us to drink. These chemicals which include such things as ammonia, aluminium, chlorine and hydrogen peroxide are deemed necessary to control algae, remove microorganisms, reduce (not remove!) pesticides and herbicides, soften, buffer or modify the pH as well as control corrosion in distribution systems. The quantities and types of the chemicals are dependent on a number of factors however if you are interested in reading more, do check out The Australian Water Guidelines 2011 for a more in depth review here.
Water manufacturers in Australia must comply with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to ensure that they pass certain standards, however despite these standards in doesn’t mean that things can’t still leak through. An example can be seen in a report published in newspaper The Age in 2012 which revealed that on eight occasions between 2010-11, the levels of pesticides, including simazine, atrazine and DEET, at Sugarloaf reservoir, north-east of Melbourne, were recorded above safe European Union drinking water standards, according to Melbourne Water data.
One of the most commonly used chemicals in water is chlorine. If you live in Sydney, you can usually smell it in the your water. Chlorine is used to as a disinfectant to try and eliminate protozoa, bacteria and viruses in the water. While disinfection of water with chlorine kills a lot, it doesn’t often kill things like the eggs of helminths (worms) and other protozoa such as cryptosporidium and giardia as they are fairly resistant (hence why outbreaks can still occur). Disinfection is very necessary (I see patients with Giardia and cryptosporidium frequently and would not want a bout of either of these) however I do not think consuming chlorine which by it’s very nature is designed to kill things, however small the amount, is healthy for anyone on a daily basis.