I either drink it all or I dump it and put fresh water in. What are the risks if I don’t wash it? It’s just me drinking out of it. I’m talking days and days like why ever wash it if it’s just me?
Edit: Clarified the amount of time without washing
In: 3181
I work for a water bottling company and we actually do lab tests for this sort of thing all the time.
Now the theory is that an open and used bottle of water will be introduced to bacteria from the air and from your mouth. This bacteria in small amounts is obviously not harmful (and new bottled water has small amounts of bacteria anyway), but if left to multiply and grow can be a problem. Just like with any food.
Does this really happen in reality? Mostly no. So mostly this process won’t be fast or severe enough to do any damage if you reuse your bottle for a few days or even weeks. However there is no guarantee. And depending on the environment and the water you use, the level of bacteria can become too high and make you sick. Say you replace bottled water with well water and leave it out in the sun in the summer, it won’t be safe to drink after a few days – it’ll probably turn Green.
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