Is Kitchen Sink Water Safe To Drink? (Explained) 2023

Last updated on August 14th, 2022 at 01:27 pm

When we were younger, many of us were told the same thing: that there was only one place safe for us to drink water from in the house.

This safe place was from the kitchen sink. Was this merely an old wives’ tale, or is this information still pertinent today?

Kitchen sink water is safe to drink. Despite the water in some cities containing some contaminants, many healthy adults can still drink water from the tap in many areas. Some plumbers make sure they add a water purifier to the pipe carrying water to the kitchen sink. This is done to make it safer to drink.

Table of Contents

Can You Get Sick From Drinking Sink Water?

Yes, you can get sick from drinking sink water. Drinking sink water that contains contaminants like microorganisms or microbes can result in gastrointestinal illnesses.

Drinkable sink water should be clear enough without odor or having any funny taste. However, your sink water may possess a metallic taste or a foul smell, or it may be cloudy.

This could indicate the presence of specific unwanted contaminants in the pipes transporting the water to the sink.

Common sicknesses resulting from drinking contaminated sink water include:

diarrhea
vomiting
headache
fever
kidney failure

There is also a possibility of developing hepatitis if you consume drinking water that is contaminated.

Additionally, this is likely to result in severe health issues in those already immunocompromised.

Being exposed to chemicals can lead to short-term or long-term effects. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), several symptoms can be caused by these chemicals:

skin discoloration
nerve problems
organ damage
reproductive damage
cancer

What Happens If You Drink Sink Water?

Drinking safe sink water leads to no health complications. But drinking unsafe sink water leads to several health complications. One way to determine if water is contaminated is to look for cloudiness or turbidity. If you notice none, your kitchen sink water is safe enough for consumption.

Cloudy water isn’t necessarily harmful to your health, but it could mean that your sink water has been contaminated.

Thus, it indicates the presence of either pathogens or chemicals in the water.

There are a few reasons why you should drink safe sink water which is filtered or unfiltered:

#1. It’s Healthier For You

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), several water institutes and doctors publish reports to reiterate the safety of sink water, thus often encouraging the public to consume it.

Consequently, sink water is good enough for consumption and your health, the same as bottled water.

#2. Taste

The tap water running there tastes excellent in some cities like Zurich, Oslo, Stockholm, Munich, and Madrid.

However, tap water might have a bad taste or a foul smell in some other cities. But if your tap water has a bad taste, it can be eliminated by using a filter or adding citrus fruits.

#3. Convenience

Tap water gives you the freedom of getting water from the tap whenever you need it for anything.

Drinking, making coffee, watering your plants, amongst others, can be done using tap water.

If you use a filter to purify your tap water, make sure to change it frequently.

#4. Save Money

Tap water helps save money because it is less than 1/300 of bottled water most times. The total cost of filtered water is also considerably low.

Considering the cost of the filters bought and replaced in a year, the price is less than 1/20 compared to bottled water.

This is dependent on the amount that is consumed.

#5. Better For The Environment

Tap water is environmentally friendly and efficiently transported to your home with little impact on the environment.

Bottled water would require about two to three liters to produce one liter.

Is Tap Water Safer Than Bottled Water?

In general, tap water and bottled water are equivalent when considering safety. So, choosing which to drink between tap water or bottled water comes down to a matter of personal preference.

Suppose you’re concerned about the safety or quality of your water; you should purchase a filtration system or a water filter instead of always buying bottled water.

Nevertheless, there might be a few instances when bottled water would be safer to drink than tap water.

This is significantly down to the fact that your tap water is contaminated. There are certain people, for example, those who have compromised immune systems.

And these people might need to buy a selected type of bottled water. They can also boil their tap water before it is safe enough to drink.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered that all water institutes present yearly qualitative reports to their clients.

These client confidence reports act as sources of information. These include sources (rivers, lakes, aquifers, amongst other sources.

In addition, toxin levels and potential wellbeing impacts are provided as well. Consequently, if your faucet water is linked to a personal well source, it is required that you run tests on it after every year.

This would help you notice if your water has been contaminated or not. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has put several practices to manufacture bottled water.

Their expectations from bottled water makers include:

Processing, bottling, holding and conveying bottled water under quality hygienic conditions.

Guarding sources of water from microorganisms, synthetic compounds, and other impurities that could infect the water.

Using the right standard control proceedings to make certain, the microbial and substance security of the water.

Examining and testing both the water sources and the final result for toxins that may be present.

How Do You Make Tap Water Safe To Drink?

You can make your tap water safe to drink by employing several methods to remove the contaminants. These methods have been tested and proven; correctly applying them would make your tap water drinkable again.

#1. Boiling

If you’re out of options and have no access to purified and sealed water, then you can boil your contaminated tap water to ensure it is safe for drinking.

Boiling is one of the surest and effective methods to kill organisms that cause diseases. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and other microbes.

Also, you can improve the quality and taste of the heated water by moving the water from its containers to others and leaving the water to stand for several hours.

You can also decide to add small amounts of salt per part of heated water.

#2. Disinfectants

If you do not have access to treated, sealed water and can’t boil it, you can always produce small amounts of cleaned and settled water which is relatively safe to drink by carrying out chlorine treatment with bleach made for the household.

If you’re out of safe bottled water and if you can’t boil the water, there’s an option you can use.

You can make little quantities of unsafe water drinkable by using chemical disinfectants.

A recommended disinfectant is household chlorine bleach, preferably the unscented one.

Disinfectants can kill off harmful pathogens, bacteria, and other microorganisms. But in many cases, they’re not effective for resistant organisms.

Some of which include parasites like Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Tablets of Chlorine Dioxide are an effective measure against resistant organisms if used correctly.

#3. Filters

Several water filters can remove parasites that cause diseases from consumable water.

So, if you have plans to choose a fitting filter for your water:

#1. Always make sure you pick a filter with pores that can hold and remove parasites. It would be best to note that several fittingly-sized water filters can not hold viruses and bacteria.

#2. Make sure you pick a filter with a filter pore size. It is required that it is small enough to remove parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

#3. Take your time to study and obey every instruction from the manufacturer for your filter.

#4. After filtering, add a disinfectant such as Iodine, chlorine, or chlorine dioxide to the filtered water to kill viruses and remaining bacteria.

#5. So, if you’ve filtered the water, make sure you put some disinfectant into the water. Chlorine, Iodine, and even chlorine dioxide will destroy any microbes left after filtering.