[Pj]

Summer has gone!  So getting thirsty and drinking your tank dry is no longer a risk, however I've read quite a few comments on here over the past couple of years or so from many who have said they drink their purified water when thirsty, when nothing else is available....

My advice is don't!

If you can be bothered read this:

http://www.ionizers.org/purifiedwater.html

[NWH]

The symptoms made me LOL,i think they covered everything don`t you.

[mogy]

Sounds realy interesting till I saw one of the symptoms was  COLDSORES !!!!!   now how do you get a viral infection from purified watwer ?

[windowwashers]

dont worry about coldsores, I would be more worried about legionnaires disease.
My advice would be never to drink out of a tank like this in a van, shed or simalar

[M & C Window Cleaning]

Thanks PJ,

I was wondering about that very thing yesturday when I ran out of drinking water.

[P®oPole™]

NEVER DRINK PURE WATER!

I know it is acidic as it absorbs minerals and doesnt exist in nature. The thing I dont get is that it has a neutral P.H of 7.0 ?

Were has JM123 gone?

Pro

[Spursboy1972]

That was a well written informative article. I have printed it off and will keep it with me.
I have customers who try and argue that you can drink it as they have RO drinking water systems aqt home. Now I can show them something.

[Ian_Giles]

An interesting little read....don't you think?

But one to be taken with a pinch of salt in my opinion (but only a pinch mind (think of your blood pressure ))

Rain water can have a TDS reading as low as 0.005 ppm, hardly any difference at all from our own deionised water, and once that swallowed water hits your mouth it is no longer pure.
Take a single mouthful, spit it out into a glass and measure the TDS if you don't believe me!
By the time it hits your stomach it will be polluted with all the other things in there, it sure as hell won't be pure!
He talks of detox...mmm, I've read several reports totally de-bunking such claims, water of any kind won't detox you (as in get rid of the toxins your liver and so on won't deal with)
Of course there may well be problems drinking water that has gone through DI resin, but water that's had a very tiny amount of disolved solids removed via an R/O I don't believe is going to harm you one iota!
Consider also that most R/O's only remove about 95% of disolved solids, so probably only bring it down to just below the level of your average rain water anyway.
Legionaires disease?
Many many thousands of people are now using this system for window cleaning, and it produces a high level of atomised spray that can drift a great distance, were legionaires a great threat, I rather think that we would have at least heard of isolated cases of it by now.
It certainly has the potential, but in reality it is unlikely in the extreme for it to occur....which isn't to say it won't at some point in the future!!! Probably more at risk of getting run over by a bus!


Ian

[colley614]

Or falling off a ladder! 

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

A good read thanks pj.

Ian i think that the fact that once pure water hits your body its no longer pure is the point. It strips your body of needed trace elemants.

Simon.

[Village Gleam]

legioniares like's warmth- buildings showers.

The claim that many scientists believe the ageing process is solely or mainly to do with acid accumalation is not true. There have been no reports of people addicted to coke cola or other carbonated drinks prematurely ageing.

Acidic drinks such as orange juice do strip calcium though(bones). Apple juice is the healthest (alkaline) and can slow oesto= and arithritus.

[Davew]

In fairness the article did refer to drinking it daily, so long term he could have a point (or two). If you eat rabbits and nothing else you will die - fact.

[Village Gleam]

You mean carrots.

[Davew]

No definately rabbits.

[Jeff Brimble]

The whole purpose of the article is to downgrade ROs to sell you a different type of filtration system.
Ocean going ships produce distilled water via a small turbine at the base of the propeller which produces enough heat to produce loads of steam, they then periodically add a measure of muck to put the tatse back in.

[Pj]

I'm not surprised by the cynicism of many.
The article is well researched and highlights a number of things: our point of interest is not what the parent company is selling, more about being made aware that zero TDS and de-ionised water is definitely not something to drink on a regular basis and is bad for us.  I think it is quite definitive on those points.
Ionised water is what they are selling, which is another story.
As for zero TDS water, from the type of ROs we're interested in, well that isn't much good for us long term simply because it has no minerals in it and it will absorb/suck many important trace elements out of our gut system as we digest it because that is partly how osmosis is defined.  Regular ingesting of it is foolish.

Roll on next Summer

[Ian_Giles]

PJ,
The trace elements in water are often so minimal that it means very little, I'll accept that drinking water after it has been through DI resin is a dubious practice, I believe the resin itself is poisonous (not that you would sprnkle resin on your cornflakes and ingest direct of course!)
But from the moment you have swallowed R/O water it is no longer pure!
There is just too much 'stuff' in your stomach for it to have any direct effect at all.
The trace elements are irrelavent, we obtain more than enough of that in our food.

Deionised water has as much chance of stripping us of vital elements as I do of playing professional football!
Now if the pre-filters and so on are contaminated in some way, that could allow bacteria to grow, and in that respect there could be a problem (legionaires etc).
Treated tap water won't have bugs in it, and the systems are sealed and so should not aquire any on its way to your holding tank, but I guess there is the 'potential' there for a problem.

Oh, and if you drink enough water you can die of water poisoning...deionised or not!

Ian