A new CDC study says many Americans don't understand the potential dangers of using tap water for some non-drinking purposes.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Water from your tap, while safe to drink is not necessarily safe for all uses. Using tap water to clean contact lenses, fill a humidifier or for any number of other uses may potentially expose the user to unsafe microbes that could cause serious harm.
What the study found was that although most people understood that sterile water was free of pathogens like bacteria and viruses, and they understood that tap water was not sterile, they were still OK with using it to do things like clean contact lenses or flush blocked sinuses.Although drinking water in the Unites States is treated to meet the standards safe for drinking, cooking and bathing, low levels of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, algae, fungi, and protozoa remain.
For example, many people rinse their sinuses with a saline solution to help clear blockages of mucous during a cold. This is done by mixing water with a packet of salt in a small pot known as a Neti pot. However, people commonly use non-sterile water straight from the tap, rather than boiled, or distilled water, resulting in an infection that leads to brain swelling and death.
In addition to the amoeba related diseases, she said bacteria and viruses can be spread through humidifiers, CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnea and essential oil diffusers that aerosolize water particles. These can cause things likeIn recent years, a new challenge has emerged: pathogens that form biofilms – the slimy coating you might find on the surface of a pet’s water dish or the inside of a humidifier or diffuser – have made their way into the municipal water supply.
The solution, in the case of your pet’s dish or your home humidifier is to really scrub, and a spritz with a bleach containing solution can also help. But in the case of the pipes in our water distribution systems, this is not a possibility, and cities are only now beginning to look for ways to manage this emerging problem.
“There are something like 40 million people in the U.S. who wear contact lenses, and we know from past outbreaks that people are pretty comfortable utilizing tap water to rinse or store their contact lenses or wear their contacts while swimming or showering,” said Miko.
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