Drinking Water Myths - Facts and Fiction

Does boiling any water make it safe to drink? Is filtered water less nutritious? Isn't our Melbourne water the best in the world? Is bottled spring water always pure?

These are all common questions and misconceptions about water that many people have. Understanding the facts behind these issues is crucial for ensuring you're making informed choices about your water quality and safety.

Myth: Boiling tap water makes it safe to drink

Truth: Boiling tap water does not make it more clean and, in fact, can reduce its quality.

In the past, when the primary concern with drinking water was the presence of micro-organisms, boiling was an effective method for making water safer by killing these harmful germs. However, today's water treatment processes involve the use of chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride, which effectively eliminate the vast majority of micro-organisms before the water reaches your tap.

Therefore, the current issues with tap water are more related to harmful chemicals and heavy metals which are picked up from Victoria's corroding pipes. When you boil tap water, you're only removing pure water through evaporation, leaving behind the dissolved solids, such as heavy metals. This process increases the concentration of these contaminants, making the water potentially more hazardous than before.

Myth: By drinking pure water, you miss out on important minerals. What's more, pure water washes out the nutrients in your body, resulting in mineral deficiency.

Truth: Daily consumption of reasonable amounts of pure water helps to keep your body healthy; it most certainly does not cause mineral deficiencies.

First of all, the mineral content of tap water is trivial to the point where there is almost no nutrition value at all. Nothing of benefit to your health is lost in the filtration process. At any rate, drinking water is not even the source of your nutrition: 99.9% of essential minerals are obtained from your food.

Pure water cannot simply flush out the nutrients already in use by your body systems. Our kidney and liver are the vital organs which selectively decide what our body needs, as well as what it does not. You can be assured that essential nutrients will continue to be utilised by our body, and will not be removed by pure water. Our body's metabolism is highly sophisticated and complex; it should not be underestimated!

Myth: There is no need to filter Melbourne's tap water; it is the best in the world

Truth: Although the quality of tap water varies greatly between countries and even cities, tap water is always tap water; they all contain similar, potentially dangerous contaminants, albeit in varying degrees.

It is true that Melbourne's water catchment areas are actually quite pristine by world standards. We also have soft water here. However, it becomes exposed to the unfortunates of our natural environment: various animals and their dead bodies and droppings, insects, toxic blue-green algae, bacteria, viruses and so on.

Consequently, chemicals such as chlorine are added to sanitise our water. The water then travels through hundreds of kilometres of old aqueducts, tunnels, and pipes made from materials such as concrete, iron, steel, copper, and galvanised metal, picking up additional contaminants along the way.

Thus, water quality steadily deteriorates in transit to your tap; what you drink from your tap is not the same clear water that resides in our catchments. Instead, parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, chemicals like chlorine, THM's and fluoride; metals like copper and lead (picked up from corroding pipes and plumbing) - all posing considerable health threats - may very well be present in your drinking water. However, an appropriate filter system can effectively remove all these contaminants, protecting your wellbeing.

Myth: Spring water equals good drinking water

Truth: Drinking untested spring water can pose a risk to your health, as its safety has not been verified. Some people give their undying trust to all varieties of spring water, not knowing that there is no representative spring water, and that they are all very different. Depending on its geological status and environment from which it was obtained, spring water may contain higher levels of micro-organisms, nitrates, numerous pollutants of human, animal, environmental and industrial origin, metals, radioactive material and so on. Drinking untested, unidentified spring water is like driving with your eyes closed. You have only one body, one life, and it is just not worth the risk when a solution is at hand.