nigelinuxPeople around the world, do you drink tap water without boiling?
EponymousBoshIn the US, the only time you'd have to boil water before drinking in most places is if there's something wrong with the water system and they put out a "boil water" advisory, and that's pretty rare. It's definitely not something you have to on a daily basis. Some people will use water filters but it's not usually a necessity.
Very true. However in the less urban areas there is often well water which varies by jurisdiction from drinkable to toxic (even flammable!) Also some places in the US have water that is unsafe to use even if it was boiled. Usually water is handled on the local level and can be different depending on the local government’s ability, wisdom, and funding.
Canadian in a major city - yes, safe to drink right from the tap.
However, many remote communities here do not have access to safe drinking water.
GrayUS/Canada here as well as someone that has visited most of Europe (UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland) and stayed in hostels - no boiling necessary in any of these places.
There’s actually a pervasive myth I’ve encountered that hot tap water is dangerous and that one should only drink cold water. As far as I’m aware, this myth is due to an old setup for water systems that many homes had before modern taps. The tap was separated into separate cold/hot faucets. The cold water came safely from the city, but the hot water came from tanks that were stored in people’s attics and were therefore prone to rats and other creatures dying in them or bacteria building up. This is why still today, most British homes have separate hot/cold taps. I occasionally encountered such taps in the US and I assume that’s why my dad raised me to make sure the water was cold before drinking it. My father’s understanding of this was clearly outdated though. I learned all of this from a Tom Scott video.
Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps
German here. Yes, constantly. The only reason to not do it would be taste (personal preference) or sometimes due to pollutants entering the system, which is explicitly communicated by the city.
cwagnerThe only reason to not do it would be taste
Which IMO depends on the hardness. I’m from Flensburg originally, the water there is at around 1° dH (~18 ppm). Amazing water, I’d always drink it straight from the tap. It tastes as if it were sweetened.
Now I’m in Lübeck, 17° dH (~303 ppm; measured in a lab) and I can’t drink it unfiltered. I usually switch the filter after slightly over a week, measured (with indicator liquid, so not super exact) when it tastes noticeably bad at 9° dH (~160 ppm).
Yes, mineral content is usually the biggest factor for taste. But it is still perfectly safe to drink straight from the tap.
Safe, physically. Not safe for me mentally :D
German here. Yes, constantly. The only reason to not do it would be taste (personal preference) or sometimes due to pollutants entering the system, which is explicitly communicated by the city.
Interestingly it’s perfectly safe to drink tap water in Hong Kong. But tradition and fear of the government keeps water boiling alive.
mychinainterpreter.com/…/can-you-drink-tap-water-…
As opposed to say parts of the US where you really shouldn’t drink tap water but everyone does anyway. Flint Michigan looking at you.
I'm from Denmark, and water is safe to drink straight from the tap here.
Yes, in Canada the tap water is generally safe to drink. In my city the water is incredibly good to the point where filtering it is completely pointless as it is all rainwater that gets stored in a few reservoirs on the local mountains.
Preußisch BlauI’ve lived in Canada and the US and I’ve never thought twice about drinking water straight from the tap.
In Sweden, yes tap water is safe without boiling. Might want to filter for taste reasons.
I would drink the water in Iceland without boiling it, probably without a second thought. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it tastes amazing.
In Argentina, generally you can drink straight from the tap.
In Malaysia, the water is advertised as safe to drink. Large majority however, either boils it or uses their own water filters.
Grant_MI’m in northern BC Canada. I drink out of the tap, sometimes without even using a glass
I insert the tap into my anal cavity to hydrate myself colonially. Refreshing, if a little cumbersome when I get thirsty during a visit from guests
teflocarbonI’m in Australia and have never boiled tap water before. Sometimes during major storms or flooding you get a boil water alert but these are usually advisory and monitoring shows that in most cases the water is still within legal limits. Of course though you should still boil the water if an alert does go out.
I never drink water out of the tap because I prefer to filter it first. It’s safe to drink but I want it clean and much colder so into a filter pitcher and put that in the fridge
I remember reading once (perhaps from UFC Que Choisir, a French consumer association), that filtering decreased the quality of water (in France), because the tap water quality was very good and controlled, your filter not so much, and it may develop bacteria.
To answer the original question, I always drink tap water in France, and have never once boiled it. I know people who filter it. I sometimes put it in the fridge if I want it colder. I’ve also drank tap water directly in the UK and in Germany. I would in any European country.
tallwookieUS here - I could drink from the tap but I prefer to boil first anyway.
Netherlands - we have some of the cleanest tap water here. You can drink water from any tap. Ironically bottled water from the shops is a big seller here and you see people with liters of the stuff in shopping trolleys and I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone would spend money on something that we have an abundance of in our houses
ThavronYep. They’re alessentially the same but one is €1 per liter and the other about €0,25 per 1000 liters.
FleppensteynBuying bottled water in the Netherlands is kind of frowned upon, not many people do it and you'll be judged for it.
Only since I'm abroad I got into drinking bottled water because of my girlfriend from Germany (Germans drink bottled water all the time because they claim their tap water is toxic). I drink it because it's got bubbles and I'm no longer buying sugary drinks.
Some water treatment facilities actually filter the water to almost to a demi water and add certain elements afterwards. So the quality is really stable and often better than bottled water.
Here in italy we can drink tap water without boiling it first
godlessIn Germany, Luxembourg and Norway I was drinking it straight from the tap. In Germany specifically, tap water is more regulated than bottled water you buy from the shop, making it safer to drink.
When I was living in Africa (Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenya) as well as now in China, tap water is generally considered unsafe for consumption, no matter if you boil it or not, due to the possibilities of heavy metal poisoning. At home I tested my water through a lab (twice with ~24 months in between) and it's free of any dangerous metals or chemicals so I use it for cooking and for my coffee machine, but even though it's supposedly drinkable I wouldn't do so - neither boiled nor fresh.
Same applies for HK by the way, even though you don't have as much heavy industry poisoning the water supplies, the proximity to Shenzhen alone means that there's gotta be a ton of toxic fumes washing down that ends up in your freshwater supply. And while boiling gets rid of bacteria and stuff, many carcinogens are largely unaffected.
schnurritoAustria here, I drink tap water without boiling all the time without thinking twice about it. Pretty much in the entire EU I feel safe doing so.
Tapwater in Iceland is safe to drink. Went there a couple of years ago and spoke to the locals regarding bottled water. They told me that the bottled water is the 'same' water I get from the tap.
In France I once went to a water museum, yes those exist. They told us that tapwater is safe to drink and that we should stop buying bottled water.
I live in The Netherlands myself and I don't know better then drinken water from the tap. I would go as far as saying that we are among the countries with the best tapwater in the world.
ЛRMAN0989Canada here - tap water is just fine, I filter it at home since I prefer the taste but I’ve never been adverse to drinking it straight
Australia here, and yes, the tap water is perfectly fine and normal to drink straight out of the tap - no filtering or boiling needed.
The taste varies wildly depending on where you are. Naturally, everyone else’s tap water tastes like shit and mine is perfect.
No boiling l, but I bought a filter after listening to a story about PFAS.
CleoTheWizardYou'd likely need a really good filter to filter those out, so I hope yours works. And even then, those chemicals are in everyone and everything so they're very hard to avoid.
Oh I feel silly now. I guess I’ll go back to drinking from the tap.
wildeaboutoskarUK- we don't boil water here unless there's an issue with the pipes. I got told not to drink the water in places like Spain and Italy as it could make me unwell, but not sure if that's as big a deal now.
I got told not to drink the water in places like Spain and Italy as it could make me unwell
This is total BS, if anything, tap water is considerably better in those countries.
Source: I spent a considerable amount of time in all the countries you mentioned
Yeah I did wonder if it might be an outdated thing!
PetrusHydeSpanish here. I drink tap water, but I have a filter installed in the faucet, otherwise it tastes a bit funny (it is drinkable though).
Important:
Despite the overall quality of the water in the region, the water pipes can ruin it. If you got lead pipes you should avoid drinking the water or using it for cooking. Boiling won’t change it.
In Germany, landlords are legally required to tell you if there are lead pipes in your house, don’t know about other countries. Typically, the risk of having lead pipes is higher if the house is older.
TL;DR: lead pipes are very bad
squirrel_bearI don’t know if it’s actually true, but some have said that the Roman empire collapsed because the lead in waterworks and aquaducts made people lose their sanity slowly.
Likewise, the crime wave of the 70s in the US has been directly linked to leaded gasoline putting lead in the air, and leaded paint. You can map the crime wave literally block-by-block to correspond with areas that have not done lead mitigation efforts or those that have.
Also makes you think about the pathologically evil governmental policies the older generation have enacted, and how those people have also been influenced by lead in the air.
I’m of the understanding that lead poisoning effects the ability to engage in theory of mind (thinking about what someone else is thinking— also, empathy) and future planning, consideration of consequences, first before influencing other mental faculties. Which is why it can be linked to crime so easily.
Joining the choir from Italy - we too drink without boiling.
SabakodgoIt is safe in most parts of the EU. If you can’t, they tell you, usually.
Iceland has one of the cleanest water in the world.
Iceland has one of the cleanest water in the world.
daddyjonesIceland is, imho, one of the best countries in the world for many reasons. Clean and safe tap water is just one of them. 👍 🇮🇸
UK checking in here - straight from the tap is perfectly safe. I still put it through a filter though because I like the taste and it makes me feel fancy.
From Singapore. Tap water here is potable but we boil it first out of habit. (But I use tap water for drinking when boiled water has run out).
Australian here, I grew up drinking tap water without boiling it but since I married my wife who is Chinese, I must drink it after it was boiled. It's good for the healthy.
Australian here, no need to boil tap water for us. Some people get filter taps installed but regular tap is fine for most of us plebs
ZagorathAlso Australian and can confirm this is true for the vast majority of us.
I did visit a friend doing rural service out in western Queensland once, and out there was definitely an exception. The tap water smelt noticeably of sulphur, and I wouldn’t drink it there.
Australian here, never met anyone who boils to water before drinking it. Some people have filtered water taps installed but our tap water is usually pretty great, I drink probably 2-3 litres of it a day
We filter our tap water here in Korea. Most people do, but as I understand, it's safe to drink it just straight from the tap. It's just better through a machine that gets rid of any lingering chlorine and heats it or chills it for you.
I visited australia and we had to drink from the tap.
Eastern US here. Definitely can drink without boiling. I do filter it, though. I'm more concerned about metals and particulates than pathogens.
CurlyWurlies4AllAustralia here, yes most people drink it without boiling but it depends a little what region you’re in. Some bits of the fat north or some island towns, you may be better off boiling it. Lots of people in the city use built in filter taps but I kind of write that off as con job.
BenLolz: those overweight folks living up North…
Mostly you worry about the pipework to your house I think.
Lol, I was you 10 years ago. For context I’m Malaysian and we only drink water that is first filtered and then boiled. When eating outside we generally avoid iced drinks unless it’s a reputable shop.
Then I moved to Australia and reacted with utter horror to see my then-bf drink straight from the tap. I was like wtf you’re going to get parasites! Spit it out!
Now I drink water like Aussies and my kid refills her bottle from the tap too. My parents, when they visit, still boil water to drink but they’ve at least stopped thinking we’re trying to murder their grandchild.
Great story
Germany here. May family anf I drink tap-water all the time. No problems. Sometimes the Water could be contaminated with certain bacteria, but thats rare and the local government will warn you.
soulBitYou can drink the tap water in most places in Iceland without boiling it (especially in Reykjavik), but if you’re further into the countryside then I would check first!