[HKFella]

Originally Posted by cerberus

and as for Toronto water, well, it IS Canada tsk tsk.
.

Reminder - it's the tubes in the Canadian house, not the water.

drinking tap water has never done me any har..

You sound too young for any of that to show up yet. Anyway, don't expect a definitive answer on these forums. Do whatever you feel is right and be prepared to live (or xxx) by that.

[Janewiches]

Even back in Toronto, I would run the water, filter it through Brita, and then boil it, before I would drink any of it.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to stuff like this. But I can never bring myself to drink HK water straight from the tap.

FYI, a lot of the bottled water, or "spring water," doesn't actually come from the spring. About one quarter of bottled water is just tap water processed through a simple filter. Not really that much safer.

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/...East_id=333139

[dropdedfwed]

Originally Posted by taurus1976

Can any one suggest a good tap filter ? I am currently boiling my water in one of those electric kettles which I am not entirely comfortable with .... since the rule is to boil water for 20 mins to kill all germs !!!

take a visit to any department store, most i have seen have a few in stock... not that expensive either.

as far as i know even after boiling water for 20mins it is still not "sterile" (u need >120degrees for minimum 15minutes for that!), but will kill most things. re beer, it aint the alcohol that kills the bugs, but the fermentation process - u need up to 70%alc to kill bacteria.

most filters do not filter bacteria, only particulate matter much bigger than bacteria, so what comes out is generally fairly free of chemical residues, but can still have bugs in it. most likely it isn't the bugs u need to be worried about anyways, but the metals which the filter shud take care of.

one more consideration if ur thinking of drinking "pure"... i read some where that since the introduction of readily available bottled water in australia, the incidence of dental caries has markedly increased. this is contrast to how dentists in the 90s were exclaiming how well fluorinated water had reduced dental disease. damned if u do, damned if u dont...


my 2 bobs worth...

[cerberus]

hkfella, thx for saying i sound young...

as for those metals, what exactly are they and how can they affect one's health? heard on the radio once an expert saying they could really be good for you, and i think the HKgov says the same.

[Vrindavan]

>>HKgov says the same.

of course,

those selling flowers will claim their flowers are having the best fragrance

[Baron]

I don't want to leave my apartment, what if the air is toxic? Oh no, the food i am eating has preservatives in it! People make themselves sicker by stressing out over little things. The water is not going to kill you....get a filter and get over it.

[dropdedfwed]

Originally Posted by cerberus

hkfella, thx for saying i sound young...

as for those metals, what exactly are they and how can they affect one's health? heard on the radio once an expert saying they could really be good for you, and i think the HKgov says the same.

the metals are the salts formed from the corrosion of old water pipes. most pipes are copper, very few (if any these days) are zinc gal. others are steel alloys. they are corrosion/rust salts/oxides. this is why the toronto water theory is true. when u run the tap for about 30seconds u flush at the stagnant water out of the line. this water will have been sitting there a few hours and have a good deal of rust in it. when it is replaced by water fresh from the mains, u will see the colour change, from lovely brown/orange (in some cases green for copper pipes) to clear (hopefully).

the metal salts will probably not do you damage, but really any extra metals in ur diet are not needed, and can be risky, especially copper/zinc etc if you have too much of them over a period of time. and they taste yuck. there is some benfits of having increased copper etc in your diet, but there is also some ill effects. do a google for copper toxicity etc...

so yes, get a filter, change the cartridges readily, and drink and be happy. if you are a real fuss pot boil your water too, but really the only thing in HK water that shud be a problem is the metals/filth that enter the water from the pipes between the street mains and your cup. bugs are not really a prob in HK water, so i'm led to beleive.

[cerberus]

people, people, maybe you all got me wrong: i was trying to get someone to say it's OK to drink tap water here, not the other way around. been drinking it since my first time in HK all those years ago, it's just that now as a resident all these local rumors are starting to, pun pun, bug me. thanks for clearing the, hmm, air on this one.

[HKFella]

There've been vocal advocates of tap water in HK (wonder why they haven't come out as shrilly on this thread). Don't worry too much - I'm sure you'll find someone to reassure you that plum-bum from plum-bing would be a good heavy metal to imbibe.

My sixth sense tells me KIA's hand is veering towards the closed button on this thread.

[zatoichi]

Originally Posted by Baron

Save water, drink more beer.

amen!

baron, you are a genius. I'll seek out to try this at once.