It seems like you would get pretty nasty germs happily living in our plumbing (especially untreated well water).
I think about the water that can sit for prolonged periods in hot water tanks, stagnant water in dead end sections of the plumbing system (unused outside faucet etc), and the wet oxygen rich environment inside the faucet ends.
Yet you almost never hear about people getting sick from their water🤷🏽♂️
In: 1670
I have mildew in my pipes. Currently working on a solution. Just had the main pipe from the street into the house replaced as there may have been a leak or crack in it. Cost me $7,000. But for a while, I would have to run all of this sinks and tubs in the house to empty out the water and it seemed to help for a while… Everything repeat that every few weeks.
US answer
Per regulation, potable water has to be chlorinated enough to reach from the water treatment plant to the farthest customer home.
So, think of it like a circle. A water treatment plant puts chlorine in their water to prevent harmful bacteria. The plant is located in the center town. That chlorine has to last. As the water travels from the center to the farthest end of the town, that’s how strong the chlorine has to be. So if your house is next to the plant, then you’ll have the highest chlorine concentration.
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Also, bacterias exist regardless. In water, on your face, everywhere. But those are not harmful ones.
Of the millions of types of bacteria, there are only a few dangerous to humans. Mostly bacteria are beneficial to us, or at least neutral. Most people forget that, and think all bacteria are “bad germs”.
Plus the water is full of them.
Of the dangerous ones, the further they are from the human body, the sooner they die. Water in a pipe isn’t a good environment for them to live in, as there is little food and heat.
And just to fuck your shit up, the bad ones, such as cholera, mrsa, staph, salmonella, e-coli, anthrax, tb etc arent killed by bleach, anti-bacterial cleaning products, hand gel, soap, etc.
They are killed with heat, UV and stuff you simply don’t have access to.
I actually work on this kind of stuff and Legionella bacteria is a huge consideration when designing water systems. You always minimize dead leg lengths and frequently flush out infrequently used fixtures, and if the hot water system allows for it (usually large buildings ), you have a constant hot water circulation going on as well as periodically raising the circulating water’s temperature high enough to try to guarantee killing the bacteria if it’s there
Start with purified water, add chlorine or other disinfectant, run under pressure through sealed pipes going one direction only. Interesting fact – the separation of fresh water supplies from sewage systems was the greatest public health advancement in human history in terms of lives saved. It basically ended water borne disease, which had been a leading cause of death throughout human history.
Legionella bacteria enters the chat. Legionnaires Disease can be contracted in exactly this way.
Faucet water is filled with bacteria, especially hot water tanks, however the bacterias that multiply in hot water tanks aren’t toxifying or pathogenic bacterias. Generally speaking harmful bacterias to human will multiply between 4 and 60 degrees celsius, so if you live in a warmer climate your tap water will contain harmful bacteria. You won’t get sick from drinking your faucet water but might get sick from drinking faucet water while travelling.
There are three reasons.
First it’s highly filtered so there’s a lack of nutrients that bacteria can use to grow. In general the filtration process is sufficient to remove very nearly all bacteria amd other single celled organisms, but not all viruses which tends to be exceptionally small. Any bacteria that do manage to escape can’t grow because there’s no food source.
Second, water utilities add chlorine (Cl2) or certain chlorine compounds like ClO2, Chloramine, or Ca(OCl)2 which are toxic to single celled organisms, but not to humans because we have means to detoxify the chlorination. Point of fact immune cells in your nose and lungs produce Hypochlorite ions (OCl-) and superoxide ions in response to coming in contact with foreign particles, in order to kill and inactive them. So chlorination is really just humans learning to take advantage of a chemical defense strategy that living things have been using for hundreds of millions of years. Various mucous membranes in your respiratory tract have an epidermal layer composed of dead cells which protect the underlying tissue from insults like reactive oxygen ir chlorine compounds or food acids, excess salt, alchohol, etc.
This also quickly destroys or inactivates viruses. Viruses are wholly parasitic and can’t survive very long outside their hosts.
Third, potable water pipes are usually made of copper. Copper is also toxic to almost all life forms except in tiny amounts. This prevents bacteria or other organisms from growing on the inside of pipes in the event that the water treatment facilities break down and some biological contamination enters the water. Water mains pipes are often PVC plastic that has several percent of certain copper compounds added to the plastic, for the same reason. This gives them a green or bluish green color. However copper doesn’t dissolve much in water and traces of copper in potable water aren’t generally absorbed by the digestive system.
Theres lotsssss of bacteria in the drinking water. Even purified water has bacteria in it
Source: i test drinking water for bacteria
There’s a few big reasons.
1. We treat for it. You may have heard about chlorine in the water, or even smelled chlorine from a tap. Cities and treatment plants add chlorine or other chemicals to water so bacteria can’t survive in pipes. If you have a well, you’re supposed to bleach it every few months to keep bacteria at a safe level.
2. We prepare for it. This one took a long time to discover. Water heaters should be set to a minimum of 140 degrees farenheit, hot enough to kill bacteria, but also hot enough to burn you after a few minutes, so you should have a mixing valve in line that adds just enough cold water to bring the temperature down to safe levels. Water features like fountains and water falls used to be big things indoors, even hospitals and care homes were adding them to bring a little nature to people. Then we found out those water features were just big petri dishes full of bacteria. Which brings me to my next point.
3. We test for it! Cities and treatment plants regularly test thier water. People with wells should, too! Some hospitals even go so far testing and treating the incoming water. They’ve even been known to tell cities they have a legionaires disease outbreak because they test more often!
4. We got really lucky! That shiny brown metal called copper, one of the most used materials in plumbing lines and fixtures, is actually anti microbial! Some hospitals began researching the anti microbial effects of copper after switching from copper based foot or lever operated faucets to PVC based touchless automatic faucets. After switching some rooms and wings to ths new faucets, they noticed those areas were getting legionnaires disease outbreaks while the other rooms and wings with older faucets weren’t. Through the process of elimination, they discovered the new faucets would let small pockets of bacteria build up and grow. Not enough to make most healthy people sick, but if you’re in the hospital because you’re sick, it’s just enough.
Thanks for reading!
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