some friends of mine make it a habit, if they are staying in a hotel that is fairly old, of not drinking the tap water - for fear of old plumbing with lead in it.

I generally pooh-pooh this but should i?

My theory is that the exposure, if any, would be so low from a few cups that i should not worry.

But then i think they may have a point.

Anyone else ever think of old pipes and lead in tap water?

I do sometimes. Never had problems. Of course I didn't drink any tap water in China!

Monica

no, not thinking of lead, but don't drink it because I have found it tends to taste off and metallic, then again someone on this board once accused me of being drunk because I said that.

I'd check carefully if the water has little particles of metal in it, which happens now and then with old plumbing.
If it is clear, smells of nothing (I hate hate hate chlorine in drinking water, it's plain disgusting) and tastes ok then I drink it without worrying.

It depends on where I am, and how old the hotel is. In the UK many hotels and B&Bs still have the water in the bathroom supplied by a tank, rather than direct from the mains I believe. I won't drink it if I think it is from a tank.
But in most places in Europe I would drink the water from the hotel room provided it wasn't chlorinated and had no nasty taste to it. I rarely drink tap water in the US, even in friends houses - it just tastes nasty to me.

Of course I am spoiled by having superb tasting tap water, naturally filtered though our local dunes and stored in a huge ice age aquifer.

Friends not too far away have their own pump but their water tastes metallic and is definitely an acquired taste.

I rarely drink water. Prefer beer.

I take a sip to see how it taste. If it's okay, I drink it. I drink lots of water.

I think the tap water in NYC, Rome, and Paris tastes wonderful! I almost always drink the tap water in Europe. I do NOT drink it in Africa, and I didn't drink it on my recent trip to India.

It depends on the country. Europe, sure. Latin America? Not so much.

The amout of lead that would leach out into the water from brass plumbing, or solder that had lead in it, is minimal and most of that would be flushed by running water for a few moments before drinking. However if the supply to the building has a lead pipe you will get some lead, but most of the lead in NE PA were I work has been replaced. Metal particles are most likely from old galvanized pipe. It's what you can't see or taste that gets you.

Hi Pal,

Do you use bottled water to brush your teeth?

Shower or bathe?

Hi; If it tastes OK, we drink the water almost everywhere in Europe. But not Budapest in the early 1990's. Ira---we used bottled water to brush our teeth. Kept our mouths closed while showering, I think??!!! iris1745/dick

Ira - i drink tap water everywhere but was thinking maybe i should not at times

PAplumber - letting the water run a while can't hurt and thanks for reminding me of that.

As for European water treatment systems i think they use the Ozonization process that is considered to be superior to the systems common in most of the U.S. It's more old pipes that could concern me.

I've always used the hotel tap water to fill my water bottle each morning before heading out, and often I will re-fill it in the ladies room during a pit stop.

To be clear, I have done this is London, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Florence and Rome.

I did not do that in Mexico and have not traveled to any of the third world countries. There are places I think I would be more cautious.

hi pal,

usually the drinking water comes staight from the mains, it's the hot that is stored in a tank.

as we warn our guests, we are NOT on the mains but have a well from which water is pumped by electricity and then treated before it's drunk. no-one died - yet.

regards, ann

I frequently drink water from the tap - at home and when travelling. Of course not in Bali and places like that, but everywhere that isn't a "don't drink the water" country. Like others, I fill my water bottle from the tap.

I think that the marketing folks who have convinced people in developed countries that tap water is somehow unpalatable, but filtered tap water in a bottle is fine, are absolute geniuses.

So far, everywhere except Mexico. Didn't even brush my teeth with tap water in Mexico. I was so careful, it was hard to enjoy myself.
I don't travel to places that have questionable water yet except the Mexico trip. Tap water in the US and Europe has been fine. Tap water in the caribbean has been fine too.

I don;t drink tap water in hotels - or restaurants - since it generally doesn;t taste very good - or at least to someone used to NYC water. We do use it to bush our teeth etc. - but always drink bottled water.

I drink tap water when I'm traveling anywhere in Western and Central Europe, and North America, but nowhere else. Where I don't drink the tap water I also don't use it to brush my teeth, and I also avoid ice and raw fruit and veggies. I'm considering buying one of the new water sterilization systems for the next trip that requires bottled water, as I hate the idea of adding to the mountains of discarded bottles. (At home (US) I use a Brita carafe and filter.)

I always ask at hotel reception (or its equivalent) in Europe and have always been able to drink tapwater there. Some countries it's essential to drink bottled water but where it's not, it's more environmentally friendly to drink tap water even if you don't like the taste.
Many restaurants are now refusing to serve bottled water because of the carbon emissions created by bottles, transport etc. As far as I know it's illegal in France to refuse to serve tap water too. Not sure about Italy as we were refused it in Venice.
If you have a look at http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_...nd_energy.html
you'll see why. A partial quote says: "The Pacific Institute estimates that in 2006: Producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation
Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.

Total U.S. Consumption of Bottled Water in 2006: According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans bought a total of 31.2 billion liters of water in 2006, sold in bottles ranging from the 8-ounce aquapods popular in school lunches to the multi-gallon bottles found in family refrigerators and office water coolers. Most of this water was sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, requiring nearly 900,000 tons of the plastic. PET is produced from fossil fuels – typically natural gas and petroleum".

The article gives much more info than above - and remember this is JUST America - and the topic is worth a look if you care about global warming. There are many more articles which cover this topic of course.