There has been a joke going around for a few years that if one wants to get high, all one needs to do is drink the tap water. While this is not strictly true, it is true that there are pharmaceuticals in your drinking water.
Sarah Janssen, MD, PHD, MPH, a science fellow at the Natural Resources Defence Council stated in 2011, “Ever since the late 1990s, the science community has recognized that pharmaceuticals, especially oral contraceptives, are found in sewage water and are potentially contaminating drinking water.”
[Source: WebMD]
Although the above report was regarding drinking water in the United States, and the quantity of these drugs that exists in drinking water is unknown, as is their effect, if any, on humans, this is of great concern to all, including those living in the UK, especially those with children.
Is UK Tap Water Safe to Drink?
A study by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) of the drinking water in the UK, found that although drinking water in the UK undergoes intensive purification treatment, there are still traces of benzoylecgonine, the metabolised form of cocaine, present in the water at various sites in the UK.
Sue Pennison of DWI stated that the minute concentrations of the drug in the water do not pose any threat to anyone’s health as the levels, which are up to 20 times lower than the levels set by the WHO Guidelines, were acceptable under the EU Drinking Water Directive, as per the Water Resources Act.
A report released by The Centre for Radiation, Chemical & Environmental Hazards (CRCE), part of Public Health England, in 2013 however, stated that ibuprofen, naproxen, carbamazepine, carbamazepine epoxide, caffeine, and benzoylecgonine were all present in final treated drinking water at concentrations of mere nanograms per litre.
The report goes on to state that “Estimated exposures for most of the detected compounds are at least thousands of times below doses seen to produce adverse effects in animals and hundreds of thousands below human therapeutic doses,†and â€the detected pharmaceuticals are unlikely to present a risk to health.â€
Is UK Tap Water Safe to Drink? According to our governmental departments, yes, even though there are many drugs present in the UK drinking water, and there is also fluoride which is known to cause cancer, in the water in most regions, your tap water is safe to drink!
Me, I am not convinced that it is safe to drink, and I definitely do not want to be drinking water that contains drugs, pharmaceuticals and who knows what else, so I will continue to drink water out of my water cooler thank you very much!
If you, like me, do not trust that the water that comes out of your tap is good for you, then I suggest that you contact Living-Water, London’s premier Water Company, and a member of the British Water Cooler Association (BWCA) for a free on-site assessment of your water needs. They have a wide range of bottled water coolers (dispensing their own Living-Water Spring Water bottled at Source) and mains water coolers that are stylish, sturdy, top of the line, and come with options like only chilled or chilled/ambient and hot water; optional filters; interchangeable side panels; Direct Chill technology and much more.
