5 ms·

I was surprised to find that they give you a free glass of water with ice in the US restaurants. However, it's very awfully tasting "Chlorine Springs" ;) No won

I was surprised to find that they give you a free glass of water with ice in the US restaurants. However, it's very awfully tasting "Chlorine Springs" ;) No wonder people tend to avoid tap water there.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Water quality massively varies by location. It's generally all safe (spare me the low effort comment about Flint or some watershed in WV poisoned by coal, the exception proves the rule) and most of it doesn't taste like chlorine.
- tharkun__ 5y ago
  The chlorine taste or smell is something that is very subjective and can change for other reasons as well. I.e. if you are a tourist that is not used to chlorinated water at all, even mildly chlorinated water can smell distinctly. And disgusting. Get used to it and it's like many things you get used to: you don't notice or mind it much any longer. But even then you might go take a shower and out comes a huge chlorine stink that subsides after a bit. For all you care water with chlorine smell would probably be the safest (from a microbial perspective - same caveats as you are mentioning about general guideline vs specific edge cases)
  - mywittyname 5y ago
    But, getting back to the OP's point: water treatment in the USA varies dramatically between municipalities. Some use Chlorine, but others use different processes, be it chemical or filtration, to clean water. Older water infrastructure can't support chloramine, a replacement for chlorine, because it causes water to leech metals used in pipes. So older infrastructure in poor neighborhoods still use chlorine, but older, wealthy places might use nice filters and no chemicals. It varies a lot, even with houses separated by a few miles.
- leppr 5y ago
  The fluoride in US tap water should preclude pregnant women from drinking it regularly. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-09765-4 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31743803/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31743803/
- rhino369 5y ago
  You also just get used to the taste of whatever other material in your local water. I drink tap water all the time and it just tastes like water. My daughter, who only ever has filtered, asked me why tap water tasted weird when I gave her some from my glass. The only place in Europe where I had good tasting tap water was an Alpine village in Austria. The owner of the AirBnB said I had to taste it--and he was right. Better than fancy bottled spring water.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

Water quality massively varies by location. It's generally all safe (spare me the low effort comment about Flint or some watershed in WV poisoned by coal, the exception proves the rule) and most of it doesn't taste like chlorine.

tharkun__ 5y ago
The chlorine taste or smell is something that is very subjective and can change for other reasons as well. I.e. if you are a tourist that is not used to chlorinated water at all, even mildly chlorinated water can smell distinctly. And disgusting. Get used to it and it's like many things you get used to: you don't notice or mind it much any longer. But even then you might go take a shower and out comes a huge chlorine stink that subsides after a bit. For all you care water with chlorine smell would probably be the safest (from a microbial perspective - same caveats as you are mentioning about general guideline vs specific edge cases)
- mywittyname 5y ago
  But, getting back to the OP's point: water treatment in the USA varies dramatically between municipalities. Some use Chlorine, but others use different processes, be it chemical or filtration, to clean water. Older water infrastructure can't support chloramine, a replacement for chlorine, because it causes water to leech metals used in pipes. So older infrastructure in poor neighborhoods still use chlorine, but older, wealthy places might use nice filters and no chemicals. It varies a lot, even with houses separated by a few miles.
leppr 5y ago
The fluoride in US tap water should preclude pregnant women from drinking it regularly. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-09765-4 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31743803/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31743803/
rhino369 5y ago
You also just get used to the taste of whatever other material in your local water. I drink tap water all the time and it just tastes like water. My daughter, who only ever has filtered, asked me why tap water tasted weird when I gave her some from my glass. The only place in Europe where I had good tasting tap water was an Alpine village in Austria. The owner of the AirBnB said I had to taste it--and he was right. Better than fancy bottled spring water.