Bleach in water

If you are on 'town' water, then you drink chlorine every day!

These queries can be easily answered by doing a 'google' on bleach water purification.
V8

"If the water is from a town water supply, then it has to meet a minimum bacterial standard" - it is nice to see that so many people trust the system. Theoretically yes, it should. But the ANZECC drinking water guidelines are not compulsory (!!!) otherwise too many supplies would fail.

The other problem is how much residual chlorine you have at the end of an old (i.e.dirty), long reticulation system on a hot day with water restrictions (i.e. low flow) in place. You guessed: zero. In town X where I used to work I had to convince them that putting the recommended chlorine comcentration in at the source (treatment plant) did not do much for the concentration at the consumers tap (was zero regularly). Had to increase quite a bit to end up with 0.5ppm FAC at the tap...

Also, E.coli, usually responsible for travellers gastroenteritis, can be slightly different dependant on location. I.e. what you're immunised to in your country town is not there in the town 300kms away, but there is another strain you are not immune to. Won't kill you but may send you to the toilet more often than you like.

Best advice, already given here: use bottled water for drinking if in doubt. Best use small town water for the kettle (i.e. boil).

Just my $0.02

Happy travels

Ted

"Theoretically yes, it should. But the ANZECC drinking water guidelines are not compulsory (!!!) otherwise too many supplies would fail."

Yes that may be true for physical and chemical constituents, but not necessarily for microbiological parameters.

We need to be mindful that we don't incite paranoia with Australia's drinking water supplies, as any issues of poor water are the exception rather than the norm.
More often than not, the issue is more to do with aesthetic qualities eg taste of chlorine, Fe/Mn discolouration etc rather than health concerns.

As said before, the chemistry of water can be complex, and one needs to be mindful when applying any rule of thumb formula.

Andrew

BTW I'm not sure how E.coli gets into a pressurised (closed) reticulated system in most cases...... short of any Natural Disaster occuring.

Andrew