[_glass]

Yes, in Hamburg, Germany there are a lot of lead pipes still. When moving there I got to find this out by a letter from the government, that I should know that I have many times over the limit drinking water which I was consuming. I was always telling others to drink the safe tap water ...

[LargoLasskhyfv]

That sounds unusual. Was that warning letter about lead in the lines from the public utility ( https://www.hamburgwasser.de ), or the pipes internal to the house?

[_glass]

No, it is now nine years ago, but I think it was from some state government agency. I know it was not from Hamburg Wasser, as it concerned not the public lines, but from the house itself. And I just saw that beginning next year it will be not allowed anymore: https://www.hamburg.de/politik-und-verwaltung/behoerden/bjv/...

[AdamN]

Funny. If you say that kind of thing in some of the German subreddits they'll run you out with pitchforks - "Germany has the best water in the world!" is the refrain.

[ubercore]

Norway checking in, moved here from the US, and have family in Germany. Norway water is definitely my preference.

[IAmBroom]

"Preference" is not safest.

[ubercore]

Is Germany objectively safer than Norway?

[manmal]

Why did you tell others to drink tap water if you haven’t verified it’s safe?

[mjh2539]

Because in the first world it is reasonable to believe that the tap water in major metropolitan areas is potable.

[manmal]

I'm a tap water drinker myself, but only after moving away from a city where water from other areas had to be imported to reach safe levels (according to EU regulations) because several garbage deposits of thousands of tons leaked for decades unhindered:

Almost 2 million tons of garbage, among that 40k tons of toxic waste: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Deponie

1 million tons aluminum & other stuffs: https://www.fcp.at/de/projekte/details/sanierung-altlast-n6

One might imagine that diluting such water to reach "safe" levels is not as healthy as water that never saw a toxic waste dump.

It's also not the case that tap water is always safe, even if it's declared to be. During hot summers, there's very often bacterial contamination, requiring addition of chlorine or other antiseptics. But until that is caught, some days might go by.

[_glass]

Sorry, the phrasing might not have been clear. Until that event, I was always propagating to drink tap water. After that I realized that research is important.