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For various reasons we're going to get bottled water shipped in to our house and start drinking that rather than the tap water. I asked a guy at one of the water companies what kind of guarantees I have that the water is indeed good for me. His response was two things: (1) I can go and inspect the filtration setup they have (industrial strength apparently) and (2) he provided a typical chemical analysis of the water they ship out (below).
It then dawned on me -- I don't know the first thing about water and what's a good mix of minerals in it. Can anyone advise me on whether the following analysis is good or bad? Fluoride is good for my teeth, right?
Typical Analysis mg/L
Chloride 170
Sodium 97
BiCarbonate 90
Sulphate 63
Calcium 38
Magnesium 10
Potassium 5.9
Fluoride 0.8
Nitrate 0.2
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Have you ever seen a communist drink a glass of water? Avoid flouride at all costs! :-)
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It's in the range of standards we have also here for tap water. Except it's a quite salty water (Sodium), take care if you follow some sort of no-salt diet. The chloride won't maybe help for the taste, though.
Here are the legal levels in France for tap water:
Sodium under 200 mg/l
Sulfates under 250 mg/l
Chloruride under 250 mg/l
Nitrates under 50 mg/l
Fluoride under 1,5 mg/l
Last edited by arnaud (2005-06-07 14:31:23)
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have you considered installing a reverse-osmosis (ro) filter in your home? my tap water sucks and for a while i bought many bottles/jugs of water (which got old quick). with my ro filter my tap now tastes better (and is probably cleaner) than most bottled.
regarding mineral content, i'm more concerned about clean water. most nutritional literature i've read (and i've read quite a bit) puts a low premium on water mineral content especially juxtaposed with cleanliness. i've also read that the amount of minerals that water provides as compared to other food sources is small.
oh, and your comment about fluoride was a joke, right? while we do need trace amounts of fluoride, the fluoride added to municipal water systems is considered by many to be toxic to healthy living.
if you are interested in ro systems, here's an email i sent to some friend's that were looking into water filtration systems:
---
hi,
i hear y'all are looking for water filters. if you
haven't purchased one yet read on.
a year and a half ago when i was having serious
digestive trouble i did mucho research into water
filtration systems.
the best (and the best bang for the buck) bar none
were the RO systems from APEC.
it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff in
water filtration systems because the vast majority of
what you find is being resold and often rebranded.
APEC is not a reseller. they are the designers and
manufacturers of the systems they sell.
APEC only uses standardized FDA/NSF certified
components that you can buy elsewhere if you so
choose. my experience with APEC and their products
has been nothing less than stellar.
http://freedrinkingwater.com/
lame website name.
anyhoo, that's all i have time to write in this
moment. my brain was once brimming with water
filtration minutia. if it hasn't all seeped out
you're welcome to it.
ciao,
david
---
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Your list of constituents doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary. All the chemicals that they list are 'normal' ones for water.
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For the US standards, etc. take a look at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
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For Australia try this page as a start. http://www.waterquality.crc.org.au/index.html
This link: http://www.waterquality.crc.org.au/consumers/toc.htm is an online consumers guide to drinking water.
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My personal point of view is that the minerals in the water are not usually the problem (with a few exceptions such as lead, and arsenic), but it's the organics & the bacteria, if your local source is surface water as oppoed to groundwater. A water system will need some sort of carbon filtration, reverse osmosis, etc. to remove the organics. Disinfection usually with chlorine or perhaps ozone, will take care of the bacteria & bugs.
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If your bottled water source doesn't address organics and their water source is in a developed area, you might not be getting as clean of a water source as you hoped for.
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Discalimer: I am trained as an environmental chemist, and my wife is a scientist for the USEPA, and we drink tap water.
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stewart j wrote:
"renting. :\"
so am i. the installation was relatively painless. i'd go thru the installation process again even if i was only planning on being somewhere six months. it's coming with me when i move, unless the next folks want to pay me for it in which case i'll buy another.
P.S. can someone tell me how to get quote to work again. whenever i use it and hit preview i get something like:
.
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I got tired of hauling around those 5 gallon water bottles so, for the last year or so, I've been drinking dehydrated water. No fuss, no muss. Just rip open a foil envelope and mix the crystals with tap water.
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For those wondering about the communist ranting, go rent Dr. Stangelove immediately.
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Well, count me lucky I live in Denmark. Here the tapwater are cleaner than the bottled kind. There are stricter regulations on what can be found in th tap-water than in the bottles.
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When my wife and I moved into our last house, the farmer who rented to us mentioned that the place had plenty of room "for lil' young 'uns to run around." At the time we had no kids, so we just laughed along. Then he said with a certain wry look, "There's something in the water -- works every time..."
A few months later, to our profound surprise, our landlord was proven right. At that point, we tested the water to see if it was safe (it came out of a spring box in the side of the mountain), and apparently that "something" was fecal coliform.
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We went away for the weekend, so I haven't acted on it yet. I'll be ordering the first couple of bottles this week.
Last edited by stewartj (2005-06-15 00:39:27)
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