[forgotmypw77]

only an ignorant fool would drink tap water from anything epa regulated today.

if you care about your family and loved ones, find them alternatives.

the standards are a joke even when followed.

even the safety of showering with tap water is questionable.

if you care to research, of course... there,s always sticking your head in the sand.

[Judgmentality]

> even the safety of showering with tap water is questionable

Why is this?

[throwawayboise]

Without making a comment on any danger of showering in municipal tap water, it is true that toxins can be absorbed through the skin.

[jandrese]

"Toxins" is such a broad category you can say just about anything about it. I have trouble taking any health advisory seriously when they only talk about nonspecific "toxins" instead of naming the compounds.

[Dylan16807]

This is a situation where the word "toxins" is fine, and they're being broad on purpose because it's just a claim of existence.

> I have trouble taking any health advisory seriously

Please keep in mind you're not talking to the person that made a health advisory. You're talking to someone who is saying why it's possible for water to be unsafe to shower in.

[bpodgursky]

You can not trust the EPA and still drink tap water. Test it yourself if you want (I actually agree that their lead levels are way too generous).

In Seattle it's basically raw snowmelt with 0 metals (had mine tested for heavy metals, register 0). Lots of places in the US have perfect water even if you don't trust the EPA's warning thresholds.

[s0rce]

Our area publishes the water quality tests. Not sure how that would really depend on the EPA you can also easily just get it tested as you said

[woleium]

get yourself some clams :)

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18124403-500-clam-up-...

[s0rce]

I'll call it a water canary.

[hanniabu]

I think oysters are more efficient than clams, no?

[hanniabu]

Getting it tested doesn't do that much when the quality changes drastically day to day.

[bpodgursky]

That's technically true I guess?

But that does not happen unless the municipal water source changes day-to-day, or is catastrophically badly run in a really inconsistent manner... which is almost never the case in the US. Even in Flint, it's not like the water changed day-to-day; it just became consistently acidic, which pulled lead from pipes.

Aquifer-pumped water is consistent, reservoir-fed water is consistent, groundwater is consistent.

[hanniabu]

Anecdotal but in my area (NJ) we're notified numerous times a year not to drink the water. The kicker is that many times we recieve the mail after the time where we supposedly shouldn't be drinking it. Also messed up that we're still charged for that water, but that's another topic.

[bpodgursky]

Yeah E. coli is the one thing that can change seasonally, that's fair. Still testable or filterable if you want to get a cheap purifier.

(also personally the contaminant I'm least fussed about)

[hanniabu]

Usually the notices are for lead. Other times they don't specify and just say don't use it so I can only assume it's something worse if they don't want to mention why.

[etaioinshrdlu]

Which country do you think has the best water and why?

[sschueller]

Swiss tap water is the most strictly regulated food item in Switzerland.

https://wfw.ch/wasserwissen/wasserqualitaet-schweiz#/

[vinay427]

An aside, but it's interesting how quickly people can adapt to the taste of water in a different city or country. Every time I visit a new area or country, I'm immediately unpleasantly surprised by the taste of the water, but within a few days I forget that there ever was a difference and wouldn't even notice what was different if I tried to be conscious of it. I always see people traveling to another country complain that the "water doesn't taste good" there, implying that it is of lower quality or unsafe, and it usually just makes me chuckle because people traveling in the opposite direction will say the same thing.

Of course, this article is about water that is potentially hazardous which is a real problem.

[CodeGlitch]

United Kingdom? As far as I know there's been no problems with our drinking water in terms of contaminations. They add fluoride which I think had a positive impact on the health of the nation (citation needed).