# Are you sure that water's ok? or, The End is Nigh

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-that-waters-ok-or-the-end-is-nigh/88701>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 21, 2001, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-that-waters-ok-or-the-end-is-nigh/88701 "2001-10-21T09:25:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-that-waters-ok-or-the-end-is-nigh/88701/1 "2001-10-21T09:25:08Z")

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Last weekend, when I wasn’t otherwise occupied with ChiDope and moving activities, I was visiting family members. For some reason, my family has a fear of drinking tapwater. I’m not sure why. However, it does mean that all of them buy water. So, while I’m at the grandparental units’ house, I’m partaking in a glass of deionized/dechlorinated/generally de-ickified water, when I happen to glance at the gallon jug…  
And notice that there’s an expiration date. On _water_.  
This, of course, concerns me. Not because I’m afraid of getting water that’s past the expriation date, but because I worry about the kind of people that think water _expires_. I don’t know about the general population, but I can’t remember ever opening a jug of water and saying “Ew-ew-ew, I think this water’s gone bad. Seriously…c’mere and smell this”

So, of course, because my mind is like it is, I’ve been pondering why there’s an expiration date on water, and the best I’ve been able to come up with is this: there are theoretical physicists working at the bottling plant and they’re warning me about when the protons in the water are going to decay.

So, according to the bottled-water people, Total Protonic Reversal occurs this Tuesday. Make your plans accordingly.

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**Author:** ![DarkJudicator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@DarkJudicator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkJudicator)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-that-waters-ok-or-the-end-is-nigh/88701/2 "2001-10-21T09:31:12Z")

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Mmmmmm… reversed protony goodness…

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-that-waters-ok-or-the-end-is-nigh/88701/3 "2001-10-21T18:35:03Z")

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Take a look at [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12731) and [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=39642). There’s several possible explanations given, as well as a link to a website on bottled water (looks like the same site in both, but different pages of it).

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-sure-that-waters-ok-or-the-end-is-nigh/88701/4 "2001-10-21T18:52:02Z")

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My favorite is “Filled from a municipal source.”