Expert downplays health concerns over salty tap water in Bangkok

[laislica]

Drinking tap water in Thailand!??!?! Since when it is safe? RIP guys

Safe in Bangkok if one can smell the chlorine. Lots of people do!

Here we get sometimes water not smelling

Sometimes water smelling like wet land

Sometimes smelling strong chlorine stronger than a public swimmingpool in the 70s....

Drinking??????????????

Many Bacteria produce dangerous toxins as they grow.

Chlorine will kill the bacteria and oxidise some particulate matter but it does not remove the toxins.

There is a term to describe this: By Products of Disinfection and it is a problem for all water purification plants.

Bottled water can be tap water and contaminated too.

Remember the scandal some years ago, of a well known French water supplier having benzine contamination in the ground water well they were using?

Having your own, well maintained filtration system with reverse osmosis sounds like a plan.

On the other hand we buy 20 Litres of water in big plastic bottles, the tops are ill fitting, they are often exposed to strong sunlight and who knows what else. We drink it, make ice with it and don't have any problems.

Sometimes, maybe, it is possible to tink too mut?

[55Jay]

Many opinions about what people will or will not do or how bad the water is, but none which have any evidence to convince us one way or another that there is or is not any problem with the water....

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Made me recall an old post from member Tongue Tied:

Posted 2012-08-10 15:46:42

As I am preparing to build a house and will have a refrigerator with cold water and ice, I have become interested in water quality. Unlike you folks who have your domestic water supply sucked out of a filthy river, I live in a small community with a well for the community water supply. The metered water is distributed to homes via underground plumbing. Because my village is on slightly elevated ground, it has been village land since time immemorial. The well is toward the middle, there are no dumps and the closest agriculture is at least 200 yards away -- as the crow flies. The water tastes good and has no odors, but nonetheless, I have only used it for washing and some cooking. I have been drinking water from the five gallon plastic carboys one can have delivered to the house.

But I wonder, what if the domestic water supply is perfectly potable? I could use only a sand filter to be sure of removing any residual turbidity, maybe a UV filter to kill the errant bacteria, and drink away, not having to deal with those pesky bottles anymore. The thing is, the guy that delivers the five gallon bottles has his own filtering system and he refills the bottles. I seriously doubt that he uses reverse osmosis, given the volume he processes. Perhaps the water he is delivering is the same as what already comes through my pipes! Perhaps those bottles that surround the delivered water are nothing but psychological comfort for somebody from the US where such things are more closely regulated.

Well I decided to find out and set about to get the water tested. Jesus, it was hell finding out where to do this, but I put my head down, dug in and, with wife in tow, unhappy about all my questions, I got answers. Despite advice from many people that the big University in town would test water, they did not. They sent us to the government Science and Medical Research Center, No. 9 (in Phitsanulok). After lengthy cross examination, I was able to acquire the information I needed, part of it rather shocking. The SMRC is the official water testing lab for all government testing. The supervisor there absolutely insisted that other than the SMRC offices sprinkled around the country (the next closest one is in Nakhon Sawan), there was no other place in Thailand to get water tested, unless, perhaps, somewhere in Bangkok, but nobody in the office seemed to know anything about that.

Now here's the shocker: They test for ONLY these things (taken from the menu list they gave us): pH, total solid, total hardness, chloride, fluoride, nitrate, iron, lead, MPN coli forms (E. coli bacterial count), E. coli, salmonellae, and S. aureus.

That's it! Those are the only water quality tests available for domestic supplies. What's more, the supervisor proudly and perkily announced that if my water passed these tests, I could sell it! "Huh?" I asked, "You mean I can bottle it and sell it?" She said, "Sure."

Now you've all seen these mom and pop plastic water bottling plants that bottle all that water we have been buying from the Lotus or 7-Eleven Store. Is this water clean? I gave you the standard tests above -- that's all that's required, and who would do more? And to think a lot of it has been pulled out of these filthy rivers! Those rivers are chemical dumps -- I have personally witnessed dumping. And dumping anything under the sun into storm sewers is routine.

So no tests for benzenes, MTBE, or other petro contaminants, PCB's, arsenic, nitrites, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides . . . Holy shit folks. That plastic bottle we all depended on has lost its psychological advantage for me. I remember a few years ago, some aid agency went to Bangladesh and dug a lot of wells for the poor people. They all started getting sick, hair falling out, a lot of them dying. They finally tested the water and found arsenic, which is not an unusual well water contaminant. Well that water would have passed with flying colors here in LOS.

I am going to send some water samples to the US for testing. If I find it full of agrochemicals or even trace arsenic, then it's a pretty sure bet that all those five gallon carboys I have been drinking from were similarly contaminated. I hate to go to the slow assed reverse osmosis (I hate those things), but we'll see. I'm too old to die now.

In any event, I thought some of you might want to know that the bottled water you are drinking, may or may not be clean, and there is not way to test it and know way to know. Perhaps beer is the answer. Imported -- that is. Sweet dreams.

[taony]

Why is that dude on the left squinting like that?

Is the water sour now?

or

I'm really forcing myself to drink this?

or

This tastes like sh#t.

Hopefully the added salt flavor includes iodine so at least we don't have to worry about goiter.

He put his thumb up before he started to take the sip - but he wasn't sure if he would start melting from the inside out or not so he started to cringe - and pray!

[dietergerhard]

Assuming it's not the "oops wrong, or, too much chemical scenario" I am left wondering if salt water is entering the ground water table whether through rising sea levels or otherwise then there is a much larger geological problem on the horizon than the taste and/or safety, health and filtration of tap water

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[seajae]

well the salty taste would have covered up the taste of all the sh*t in the water, bet these guys did a runner to the loo as soon as the cameras were turned off,

[Halion]

Just so much more stupid rhetoric that abounds in this dysfunctional country. If indeed you can taste salt in the water then it is unsafe to drink.

As usual there is no data presented as to the chloride levels . There are clear and concise drinking water standards which depict maximum permissible levels for potable water but as per the norm we never get the data , just the stupid rhetoric. Release the analytical data and let Joe public make an informed judgement. In the Bangkok area brackish water(high chloride levels ) is common in many of the samples of bore hole wells and levels of over 1000 ppm is not uncommon.

[BudRight]

It's funny that you come across so many expats in Thailand that don't drink tap water because they say it's unhealthy, but then have a junk food lunch followed by 10 beers. You have to laugh at their stupidity.

I urge you drink 10 beers worth of tap water to try your theory.

[toonsai]

In fact what we see on the picture is a brand new mineral water fountain installed for the picture. The guy on the left cannot even resist at laughing at the scam.

Here, not the usual finger pointing gesture; only the glass raising gesture to prove the audience that it is totally safe!

[Rorri]

davejones23, on 20 Feb 2014 - 09:21, said:

It's funny that you come across so many expats in Thailand that don't drink tap water because they say it's unhealthy, but then have a junk food lunch followed by 10 beers. You have to laugh at their stupidity.

I fail to see your reasoning, eg, cholera is spread through contaminated water, I think I can live longer on "junk" food and beer., but then for some stupid illogical reason, you seem to believe many expats eat only "junk" food and drink beer. So Dave, what do you drink, or do you not live in Thailand.

[Fookhaht]

Entertaining looks on their faces in the photo.

Even though nobody drinks much tap water anyway, these three poor bastards were voluntold for the confidence inspiring taste test photo op.

I would give them each 500 baht to come up to my town for a photo op sipping our slightly tea colored tap water.

When I fill a 50-gallon barrel with our city tap water, a layer of black muddy sediment completely coats the bottom of the inside. That's on a good day.

On a bad day, same same, but a lot of the "mud" stays suspended in the water.

I often wonder about this as I rinse my contact lenses and toothbrush at the tap.

[55Jay]

Non-scientific YT is probably safe to drink, wouldn't trust the consistency of the processing, or inbound contamination somewhere in the distro piping system (cracks, etc). With bottled or filtered water being treated to some degree, and relatively inexpensive, why risk it.

Me personally, I used to use it for brushing teeth since 2005 in BKK but now we live up North and this past year, we were put on some nasty pond water at the end of dry season, and I started to get some Delhi Belly, so I went on bottled in the head; but was thankful our town still had water, which is not always the case up North. I then monitored the inflows to our local reservoir during heavy rains, didn't like what I saw, so I stayed on bottled water.

I use tap water to boil then cook food items, but for anything where the water is part of the end product (condensed soups, ramen, etc), I use rain water or bottled water. Ice cubes, morning coffee is from rain water. Straight drinking is bottled only.

[55Jay]

Entertaining looks on their faces in the photo.

Even though nobody drinks much tap water anyway, these three poor bastards were voluntold for the confidence inspiring taste test photo op.

I would give them each 500 baht to come up to my town for a photo op sipping our slightly tea colored tap water.

When I fill a 50-gallon barrel with our city tap water, a layer of black muddy sediment completely coats the bottom of the inside. That's on a good day.

On a bad day, same same, but a lot of the "mud" stays suspended in the water.

I often wonder about this as I rinse my contact lenses and toothbrush at the tap.

Are you up North? We were on some borrowed water (see above post) at the end of last dry season and it was really nasty. Coming out of the tap/shower, you could smell it and rinsing off with rain water after a shower in it was necessary.

We are back on our local lake now since the rain season and it has settled down so our tap water at least looks clean but still variable tinge when filling a container; but not as extreme as what you've got.

[banglassie]

Drinking tap water in Thailand!??!?! Since when it is safe? RIP guys

Did you ever eat rice at a street food stall? Perhaps had some tea on the street? I hope you do understand they don't you bottled water to make rice etc... Not even the 1 bt/liter ozonized water, but regular tap water.

I drink tap water all the time in Bangkok in the form of tea. Never had any problems. Wouldn't drink it in some other provinces though, got problem in SIsaket although we have a filter. But the Bangkok water is chlorinated enough to make me feel safe at least. But I guess that relative in these overly health concerned days.. BTW just read news you should all say away from cloth softening liquids, as well as salmon, and a lot of vegetables that take up crap from the ground. in fact, you all better start live on Soylent and space food, but I guess it will turn out to give cancer as well....

[Fookhaht]

Entertaining looks on their faces in the photo.

Even though nobody drinks much tap water anyway, these three poor bastards were voluntold for the confidence inspiring taste test photo op.

I would give them each 500 baht to come up to my town for a photo op sipping our slightly tea colored tap water.

When I fill a 50-gallon barrel with our city tap water, a layer of black muddy sediment completely coats the bottom of the inside. That's on a good day.

On a bad day, same same, but a lot of the "mud" stays suspended in the water.

I often wonder about this as I rinse my contact lenses and toothbrush at the tap.

Are you up North? We were on some borrowed water (see above post) at the end of last dry season and it was really nasty. Coming out of the tap/shower, you could smell it and rinsing off with rain water after a shower in it was necessary.

We are back on our local lake now since the rain season and it has settled down so our tap water at least looks clean but still variable tinge when filling a container; but not as extreme as what you've got.

I'm in a city of over 100,000 population in Isaan. Edited February 20, 2014 by Fookhaht

[55Jay]

Drinking tap water in Thailand!??!?! Since when it is safe? RIP guys

Did you ever eat rice at a street food stall? Perhaps had some tea on the street? I hope you do understand they don't you bottled water to make rice etc... Not even the 1 bt/liter ozonized water, but regular tap water.

I drink tap water all the time in Bangkok in the form of tea. Never had any problems. Wouldn't drink it in some other provinces though, got problem in SIsaket although we have a filter. But the Bangkok water is chlorinated enough to make me feel safe at least. But I guess that relative in these overly health concerned days.. BTW just read news you should all say away from cloth softening liquids, as well as salmon, and a lot of vegetables that take up crap from the ground. in fact, you all better start live on Soylent and space food, but I guess it will turn out to give cancer as well....

Roger that.

Don't think anyone is over-reacting like a few "is it safe?" western countries. I drink a sh_ite load of water and it's sorta common knowledge, true or not I dunno, that agricultural and livestock grazing lands do tend to leech all sort of nasty stuff into the rain run off that, in my case, runs bang into the local water reservoir. It took my first full year living up here to see the cycle myself and adjust accordingly.

[impulse]

Drinking tap water in Thailand!??!?! Since when it is safe? RIP guys

Did you ever eat rice at a street food stall? Perhaps had some tea on the street? I hope you do understand they don't you bottled water to make rice etc... Not even the 1 bt/liter ozonized water, but regular tap water.

I drink tap water all the time in Bangkok in the form of tea. Never had any problems.

Tea's popular because you start with boiled water. Rice, too- and soup- because salty boiled water can be used.

I have no doubt that the water coming from the treatment plants in Bangkok is of good quality. Once it meanders through pipes of varying vintages, God only knows what materials, and questionable integrity, I don't have the same warm fuzzy.

I can say this- I would not want to be drinking the water I often draw for a bath. Then on other days, it looks fine. But it's not possible to tell for sure what kind of day it is by looking through 2" of it in a glass, or in a tea cup.

Edited February 20, 2014 by impulse

[Yunla]

I run my tapwater through an E-Spring filter and then I boil it and let it cool and then I drink it. I've been doing this since the 1980s. I also have advanced multiple sclerosis and so I'm sensitive to a lot of foods and drinks which can cause me to go into seizure. I have no health problems from decades of drinking Bangkok tapwater, but I would not drink it without filtering and boiling it first.

[attrayant]

Yes! I thought I was imagining it but the water has tasted like it has been softened (sodium ions exchanged for calcium) for the past two weeks. Normal particle filters aren't going to help with sodium, and neither is boiling. You'll need a reverse-osmosis or ion exchange filter.

Why doesn't the article say how much sodium is in the water? Are there no labs in Bangkok that can do water analysis?

[taony]

The water in my "modern living" building has thankfully stopped smelling to high heaven in the week or so. I would still never drink it though, but do brush my teeth, wash the dishes, shower etc. I;ve gotten the flu four times this winter and wondering if its something in the environment of my apartment that is a cause besides the cool weather as I normally get the flu only once per year if at all. The water was my first thought as to what's causing it. Honestly, I don't even like taking a shower or washing the clothes because its dirty water, but there is not much choice really, right? There are always stains on dishes, counters,and anywhere else water touches in the bathroom or kitchen. You really have to clean up after cleaning up. As soon as this lease is up I will move out of this pseudo modern building and hopefully it will be better.

How safe are those machines that you buy water for 1 baht or .5 baht a liter? I drink loads of water, like 3 litres or more a day. All my drinking water at home comes from the machine in our building. A few weeks ago, I kept smelling something funny, like gas, that would come and disappear after a minute. But there is no gas around. One day I noticed when I opened the cap to a water bottle, a similar smell came out. I threw the water out but it happened a few more times over the next little while. It seemed like there was a gas or something building up when the cap was closed. I don't know if it was because of some cheap plastic or bad water. Luckily, it hasn't really happened lately. I have been looking out for it and storing empty bottles with the cap off.

[dighambara]

Anyone who drinks tap water in a 3rd world country is an idiot.

[Yunla]

You're kidding yourself if you think avoiding tapwater will make you healthy, if you are living here. The fruit and veg has got sometimes 100x the safe level of pesticides on it, and over here they use pesticides that are banned in many places around the world. This includes so-called "high quality" and organic fruit and veg from upmarket shops. There was a story about it a year ago, where they tested samples from high-street shops. Also spraying of insecticide here in the city, sometimes big clouds of that stuff wafting onto you when you are just walking up the street. Hard to really live a 'pure' life unless you live in countryside and grow your own food and collect rainwater etc.

Fukushima fallout and other radioactive problems in the future. We are a long way from Heidi the goatgirl skipping through flowery meadows to see her grandpappa. Might as well enjoy your life and not worry about it all, imho.

So my view is if you eat fruit and veg here you might as well drink the tapwater. I eat GMO, pesticides, tapwater etc. and it doesn't bother me, I don't like the idea of living my life hiding in a cupboard because the world is big and scary, you've got to just roll with it. But yeah, filter and boil the tapwater first anyway. I use the Amway 'e-spring' filter which has worked fine for five years, it uses UV and carbon, and is not too expensive.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Yunla

[cheeryble]

You're kidding yourself if you think avoiding tapwater will make you healthy, if you are living here. The fruit and veg has got sometimes 100x the safe level of pesticides on it, and over here they use pesticides that are banned in many places around the world. This includes so-called "high quality" and organic fruit and veg from upmarket shops. There was a story about it a year ago, where they tested samples from high-street shops. Also spraying of insecticide here in the city, sometimes big clouds of that stuff wafting onto you when you are just walking up the street. Hard to really live a 'pure' life unless you live in countryside and grow your own food and collect rainwater etc.

Fukushima fallout and other radioactive problems in the future. We are a long way from Heidi the goatgirl skipping through flowery meadows to see her grandpappa. Might as well enjoy your life and not worry about it all, imho.

So my view is if you eat fruit and veg here you might as well drink the tapwater. I eat GMO, pesticides, tapwater etc. and it doesn't bother me, I don't like the idea of living my life hiding in a cupboard because the world is big and scary, you've got to just roll with it. But yeah, filter and boil the tapwater first anyway. I use the Amway 'e-spring' filter which has worked fine for five years, it uses UV and carbon, and is not too expensive.

Be very interested to see the story you mention....otherwise agree, I wash my fruit and that's about it.

Wouldn't worry about radioactivity though with much stronger cosmic radiation going through me and my ancestors 24 hours a day.

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[Yunla]

Be very interested to see the story you mention....otherwise agree, I wash my fruit and that's about it.

Wouldn't worry about radioactivity though with much stronger cosmic radiation going through me and my ancestors 24 hours a day.

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http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/THE-PESTICIDES-ON-OUR-PLATES-30188702.html

"Levels of pesticides 202x higher than what is allowed in the EU."

The more alarming fact is that over here they use pesticides that are banned elsewhere around the world, banned because they are considered highly toxic.

I respect your views on radiation. The reading I have done recently has convinced me that 'hot particles' from Fukushima and other places are a real threat to human life. Cancer rates are skyrocketing in Japan and these particles drift a lot, they don't stay in one place for long. I'm not an expert in this field at all, but I've been reading what the experts say and it apparently dwarfs the dangers from slightly poor quality food and water etc.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Yunla

[cheeryble]

Thank you for the reference Yunla.

Unfortunately the article doesn't begin to be comprehensive.

Paragraphs such as

"Thai-PAN says the produce at Huay Kwang may well have a unique as the market reveals the highest concentrations of pesticides in all kinds of vegetables, with an alarming 202 times the amount of chemicals allowed by the European guideline"

.....I personally am unable to nail what it means nor have any sort of context.

Yes I have modest concerns about pesticides in this country but ThaiPan and this article did not help, although it had the same hallmarks of alarmism which made me lose respect for Greenpeace.

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[Thai at Heart]

It's funny that you come across so many expats in Thailand that don't drink tap water because they say it's unhealthy, but then have a junk food lunch followed by 10 beers. You have to laugh at their stupidity.

Water for beer goes through RO resin filters and boiling.

If anything can survive that, other than pure H2O, it deserves to survive.

[cheeryble]

.

I respect your views on radiation. The reading I have done recently has convinced me that 'hot particles' from Fukushima and other places are a real threat to human life. Cancer rates are skyrocketing in Japan and these particles drift a lot, they don't stay in one place for long. I'm not an expert in this field at all, but I've been reading what the experts say and it apparently dwarfs the dangers from slightly poor quality food and water etc.

Yunla on hot particles..... it happens I am In fact educated as a physicist.

Good for you to have concern but realise it is in human nature to be hugely more concerned over things we can't understand than simple everyday things we can and radiation is one of them.

When I see websites popping up damning just about any subject you can think of about radiation/pesticides/pharmaceuticals/conspiracy theories etc I see patterns.

One part of the pattern is the misuse of biases......usually including selection bias, survivabilty bias, and publication bias.

Selection bias includes reliance on hugely limited information sources such as the article cited.

Publication bias includes people now set in their opinions only choosing certain published articles which favour their view and also the fact "unfavorable" data to a point of view often does not get published.

I also find that just about any nut job theory....not saying this is one.....has a qualified "expert" or two who happen to support it (maybe it simply wouldn't get into the public eye without one).

In the case of "hot particles" a chap who happened to be invited onto the panel which considered them called Busby was the sole professional objector to the conclusion hot particles are deemed not a concern. It is also noted he was selling some sort of dubious cure-all to the Japanese for five times the price online they could buy it for in the shop. It is clear that he was invited onto the panel to give voice to the strongest of objectors like him which seems very fair......but it should be said that highly noted physicists including from Imperial College where I used to hang out rubbish his figures with detailed reasoning.

Apart from all that he wears a beret.....

Whilst it's only the beginning of putting the other side I hope this is of some comfort to you.

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Edited February 24, 2014 by cheeryble

[Searat7]

Does anyone notice that the Bangkok water still seems salty ? I have a filtration system (I realize that doesn't remove salt) and the water was fine to drink till 2 weeks ago...now I must use bottled water.

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[Searat7]

Does anyone notice that the Bangkok water still seems salty ? I have a filtration system (I realize that doesn't remove salt) and the water was fine to drink till 2 weeks ago...now I must use bottled water.

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[FinChin67]

Sure all is ok. Like in the hotels.

Deaths of Quebec women in Thailand may have been caused by pesticide

http://www.cbc.ca/news/deaths-of-quebec-women-in-thailand-may-have-been-caused-by-pesticide-1.2569434

[taony]

The water in my condo is disgusting, but mostly bc they chlorine the hell out of it and then do it again. The water at my office is much better though. But i suspect its bc they have a great filtration system. I've been riding my bike, so thankfully taking a lot of my showers there.

-*I typed this myself*-