sheila: if you're referring to me at all, well, DC is the capital of the only superpower and it dumps it's sh!t right in the river when it rains, so who knows what exactly to expect?

Superpower isn't linked to civilization, but to power. Have you ever tried DRANO, it the real super power http://www.drano.com/
It's extremely efficient, you should use it every day, no matter how high the tide rises. ;-)

I'm not saying it is, just that you would assume that DC is a reasonably developed city, being the capital of the US. And please don't use drano, I have to sail in that river, and it's bad enough knowing I'm sailing in diluted sewage.

>>>I'm always curious how those people who say that they drank the tap water and it upset their system knew it was caused by the tap water.<<<

To answer your question: after repeated trips one may notice that one’s “guts” react oddly, only after having spent time in a particular country, but not others. For example, it finally dawned on me that certain …uh… problems occurred in France, but not in any other countries. I have a very sturdy constitution so these problems are not common, but after I quit glugging down lots of tap water in France (a little for brushing teeth, etc. was okay) “the problem’ vanished. Other countries’ water has been fine… who knows why?

I don’t think this has anything to do with how "sanitary" the water is, it’s just that everyone’s system reacts differently.

My suggestion is to drink bottled water where the locals do even though it might be an unnecessary tradition left over from earlier times. If a lot of chlorine is left in the water after treatment, its odour can be off-putting and it ruins the flavour of tea. Another thing is that gaseous bottled water is very refreshing and seems to help the digestion (if you need assistance in that direction). My water comes from a partly open spring so, although we cook with it, we tend to drink wine and bottled water. It's also saturated with calcium so removing that with an ion exchanger of course leaves salty taste behind. Many country places in Tuscany rely on untreated spring water so I would say that for drinking you can't go wrong with wine and bottled water.

"that means nothing...there are plenty of places in the developed world where it is not advisable to drink tap water."
Sure but the original question wasn't about Los Angeles.

All tap water has "little beasties" in it. Most are harmless, but the exact variety of "beasties" varies from area to area--even within the same country. Some people's systems will react poorly to water they aren't used to; other people won't notice a thing.

Okay, but one more question - how do I order tap water in a restaurant? Agua naturale? As opposed to Agua minerale?

Thanks, Alice

>All tap water has "little beasties"
Definitively not "all".
http://www.swm.de/english/english_mwasser.htm
http://www.swm.de/privatkunden/pdf/trinkwasserwerte.pdf

>>>>
Definitively not "all".
>>>>

why do they sell a purification and filtration system (for home installation) on that very site?

It adds CO2.

Alice9. Admittedly it has been three or so years since we have been in Italy (for the second time) but we could not figure out how to order tap water in any of the restaurants. The only choices were with or without gas and it was always bottled.
So I am curious also.

logos: that site doesn't mention anything about the presence or lack of bacteria (what I assume was referred to as "little beasties&quot. If anyone has managed to create an entire public water system that is sterile, I'd be amazingly impressed, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened. Not that all bacteria are harmful, the vast majority aren't, just that they're pretty much everywhere.

>>>>
It adds CO2.
>>>>

and it filters. munich's water is good but it's not perfect-nobody's it. despite germany's attempts at creating a "perfect" society, not all is perfect.

> presence or lack of bacteria
It's close to the end of the text
http://www.swm.de/privatkunden/pdf/trinkwasserwerte.pdf

>not all is perfect.
Not all, but Munich water is !

"Because of the M-Wasserbar’s ingenious filtering and purification system you always receive pure, axenic drinking water to safely still your thirst. "

I earn my living as a microbiologist. I would not be able to believe that any tap water is 100% pure. No matter what your proceedures and methods to ensure no bacteria in water at source, there will always be some that get into the distribution system before it reaches the taps.

how about eating yoghurt with active cultures? Won't the good bacteria kill off the bad ones? Seems to work for me.

They checked for 3 types of bacteria in that test (albeit, 3 of the most important for water safety). There are millions of types of bacteria, and no way to test for them all, and no point, since they're mostly harmless. It's pretty much physically impossible to have a water system without bacteria in anything but a closed laboratory environment.