In some places, why is it safe to use tap water to do dishes or bath, but not to drink or use in cooking?
In: Chemistry
In places where the tap water isn’t so great, it’s generally not just a matter of ‘the germ gets into your body’ or ‘the germ doesn’t get in’. Some of the germs in the tap water will end up everywhere, including on your plate and in your mouth, but the question is just how *many*. Your immune system can easily fight off a certain number of germs in a certain amount of time, but if you ingest too many too quickly it can be overwhelmed and that’s when you’ll get sick.
The difference between eating off a plate washed in *mildly* contaminated water, vs. eating food cooked in it, could be thousands of times different or more. So these water safety rules are about minimizing the risk by keeping your exposure levels low, that’s all.
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