Your drinking water contains dihydrogen monoxide

takeahike · 2025-02-26T16:10:38+00:00

The truth about American drinking water: Report shows widespread presence of hazardous chemicals. Check yours out by zip code here. Between the ongoing controversy around fluoridated water and the recent discovery of a chemical in our water systems that may or may not be toxic, the safety of American drinking water is murky, to say the least. And today, with a new report revealing that tap water is delivering harmful chemicals like PFAS (“forever chemicals”), heavy metals, and radioactive substances to millions of Americans—often at levels far beyond what scientists consider safe—it got even murkier. The latest update to the Tap Water Database, from the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG), reveals that 324 contaminants were found in drinking water systems across the country, with almost all systems having some amount of detectable contaminants in its water. That’s according to safety data collected between 2021 and 2023 by EWG from nearly 50,000 water systems in every state (except New Hampshire, which did not provide its data).

Somewhat-Reticent

broknsymetry "when left to steep for 24 hours" with "empty cellulose bag"?
Who brews their tea that way?

broknsymetry

I brew mine by the gallon. 1 gal size tea bag, 6 cups of water, 4 minutes in Instant Pot at high pressure w/ natural release, 20 packs of Equal, add water to make a gallon and refrigerate.

Heat84

broknsymetry I use Crystal Light myself.

dave

broknsymetry

What pack of infidels have I found myself amongst?

(Reminds me of advice I gave from years back: To Englishmen visiting the USA: decline any offer of tea. To Americans visiting England: if an Englishman offers you coffee in his house, best to say no).

(But I confess my own standards have plummeted: I use teabags now)

broknsymetry

Heat84 I make a gallon of Sugar-Free Crystal Light Peach Mango Green Tea (and other flavors) when I'm too lazy to brew.

Thane_Bitter

broknsymetry Reading the study it seems that it's the teabag that is collecting the contaminates, the tea itself provides compounds that help aid that collection process.

"The cotton and nylon bags remove practically no heavy metals from water," Shindel said.

In other words you must have a cellulose tea bag that is floating free and clear and not have any tea inside to ensure all of its surface area is available for use.

broknsymetry

Thane_Bitter Reading the study it seems that it's the teabag that is collecting the contaminates,

The bag material does contribute, but the tea leaves provide the most absorbency.

"I'm not sure that there's anything uniquely remarkable about tea leaves as a material," said Benjamin Shindel, the study's first author.

"They have a high active surface area, which is a useful property for an adsorbent material and what makes tea leaves good at releasing flavor chemicals rapidly into your water. But what is special is that tea happens to be the most consumed beverage in the world.

"You could crush up all kinds of materials to get a similar metal-remediating effect, but that wouldn't necessarily be practical. With tea, people don't need to do anything extra. Just put the leaves in your water and steep them, and they naturally remove metals."

...

After multiple experiments, Dravid, Shindel and their team identified several trends. Perhaps somewhat unsurprising: The bag matters. After testing different types of bags without tea inside, the researchers found cotton and nylon bags only adsorbed trivial amounts of the contaminants. The cellulose bags, however, worked incredibly well.

The key to a successful sorbent material is high surface area. Similar to how a magnet attaches to a refrigerator door, metal ions cling to the surface of a material. So, the more area for the particles to stick to, the better. Shindel posits that cellulose, which is a biodegradable natural material made from wood pulp, has higher surface area—and therefore more binding sites—than sleeker synthetic materials.

"The cotton and nylon bags remove practically no heavy metals from water," Shindel said.

Dks01

takeahike My drinking water comes from Lake Huron. It tests well below any contaminants. I like my water cold, so I drink it from a pitcher in the fridge.

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