Many people have probably seen in foreign movies how a certain hero simply pours himself a glass of tap water to quench his thirst. Can I use tap water at home and as drinking water? To find out the quality of such water and require a chemical analysis.
Sometimes after you take a shower your skin itches and your hair becomes terribly dry – then it becomes clear that Infoxvodokanal in Odessa put extra chlorine in the tap water.
Not to mention the scale in the kettle, washing machine and dishwasher.
So is it worth doing a tap water analysis?
It’s worth noting right away that drinking and tap water are two different concepts. In the order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated May 12, 2010 № 400 “On approval of state sanitary norms and rules of hygienic standards for drinking water, recognized for human consumption” is written:
Tap water is defined as:
- chloroform – if drinking water from surface water tanks;
- chlorine, ozone, polyacrylamide – if the water is treated with the appropriate reagents;
- formaldehyde – if water is ozonized in water treatment process;
- chlorine dioxide and chlority – in case of water treatment with chlorine dioxide in water treatment process.
For the reference: chlorine is the strongest carcinogen, formaldehyde is that liquid in which human corpses float in anatomic museum in order to prevent their premature decomposition, polyacrylamide can be neurotoxic and cause slight irritation of mucous.
Ask yourself another question: how long ago did you change the water tubes? Let’s say recently. What about your neighbors? AND THE HOA/ CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION? What will the tap water from those pipes bring to your home?
On the infoxvodokanal website, you can always look up the drinking water quality indicators
Water network, and they comply with GSanPiN 2.2.4-171-10 “Hygienic requirements for water
Hygienic Requirements for Potable Water for Human Consumption”. However, the water intake for analysis is not carried out in your apartment, but at the water pumping stations. What qualities the water in your kettle will have, one can only guess. Or do the water analysis yourself.
Supervision of the water supply is a “continuous critical health assessment and analysis of the safety and acceptability of the water supply” (WHO, 1976).
Is Infoxvodokanal ISO-certified? Are the results of water testing subject to international standards? In order not to remain in the dark, you should have your tap water analyzed. After all, even you and your neighbor on the stairwell may have different results.
Dr. MH ©