At first decided to stick with tap water on the basis that I was lucky to have clean water at all. But looking into it it does seem that the cryptosporidium parasite is always a possibility, including in some filtered and bottled water. I wonder if anyone has identified water that is purified to eliminate crypto. According to DAFRA tone sure this water must be treated by reverse osmosis or distilled. Any thoughts before I go and peer at every bottle in Sainsburys?
Thanks!
Hi I boil tap water. When cool pour into clean screw top bottles (they go in the dishwasher). Then any sediment at the bottom just gets thrown away. Best wishes
I spent a couple of minutes reading bottled water labels and chose AquaFine...it is city tap water that has been put through additional filtration, ozone and reverse osmosis...
It tastes very flat, compared to spring sources... but is somewhat more tasty than distilled water...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqu...
Find a brand and stick to it... my advice. Then there is the issue of the use of hydrocarbons... but recycling helps
We should never drink deionised/demineralised/distilled or even unprocessed desalinated water. It's bad for your health because the water, lacking minerals, strips them from your body. I know this personally due to two incidents in my career.
1) Early in my career, I worked in in Integrated Circuit production facility, where deionised water (ultra-pure, no minerals or other contaminants) was used for processing the silicon wafers and was also provided to special taps for use in other cleaning processes. Staff though it would be excellent for drinking or use in tea - until management directed it not be used due to the health risk.
2) When I worked for a water authority that had early experience in water desalination, I was told by the engineers concerned that they had to add minerals to the desalinated water - not only to make the water palatable, but also to stop erosion of the water pipes! This is standard practice nowadays with reticulated water from desalination plants; ensuring the water has the right pH and an acceptable mineral balance.
But don't just take my word for it, read this extract from a WHO publication:
who.int/water_sanitation_he...
Neil
The plot thickens usual!
According to this US site cdc.gov/healthywater/drinki...
need to do rolling boil for at least a minute....
Aquafina seems to be American and have sought equivalent in UK, AquaPura but no mention on their site of treatment process. I have emailed them to ask about their treatment. More soon!
Given the panic in Blackpool earlier this year re crypto in water, I am surprised no water company has responded to this issue.
And thanks!
I live in the country and have a well for my water supply. I have the quality checked regularily but just to be on the safe side I have an undersink cartridge filter feeding a dedicated drinking water tap and usually, not always, boil the water.
It takes little effort. I have a nice, stylish T-Fal 1-liter kettle which sits on it's matching induction heater base so there are no wire to plug and unplug. It turns itself off after boiling so whenever it gets low I just refill it, put on base, turn on and go about my business.
I was going through my feed and saw your post. I had never heard of cryptosporidium. I am on watch and wait - diagnosed 6 years ago. I was just in hospital for 3 days with severe abdominal pain and spiked WBC. I asked repeatedly for the hospital to test my stool as I had just returned from Australia 2 days prior. They said it was not necessary. My gastroenterologist who specializes in travel diseases saw me a few days after I was released and upon examining me requested a stool sample. I tested positive for cryptosporidium. He said cryptosporidium is becoming more common. He prescribed Nitazoxanide. I try drinking bottled water when I travel. But was interested to hear that some of you boil water at home.
Good call by you, which was unfortunately ignored by your hospital. I hope you fed back the results from your gastroenterologist. What an unpleasant experience.
I expect you visited the East coast of Australia and probably departed from there. Australia's public water supplies in the cities and larger towns are generally quite safe. Complicating matters, there has been recent massive flooding along the East coast. However there's been heightened awareness of Cryptosporidium in Australia after a huge outbreak in Sydney in 1998.
I haven't heard of any outbreaks from bottled water in Australia. Given you were travelling, your bottled water could have come from anywhere in the world. (Bottled water is sometimes bottled municipal water anyway.)
(I'm included amongst those who boils water when I'm not sure of its safety. I averaged a neutrophil count of 1.0 while in watch and wait.)
Neil
Hi! Yes I know the water in Melbourne etc is great - the doctor said it could have come from veggies I had not properly washed or who knows. Still great to know about boiling water.
Thanks so much for your response
😊
Living Water
Coconut Water
Chlorinated water protective for CLL?
Is Distilled water better to consume during treatment ?
