# Can I use boiled tap water in a sinus rinse? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 3, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421 "2014-09-03T22:22:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/21 "2014-09-04T03:32:38Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > You can’t see the difference between tap water is susceptible to contamination from brain eating amoebas and what the cite actually said, which is it can’t live in properly treated water? > I don’t know about where you live, but when I turn on my tap, I don’t get swamp water. > **Magiver** ’s cite didn’t say if you don’t have properly treated municipal water you could be susceptible to this amoeba, it said tap water is susceptible PERIOD. > We are supposed to fighting ignorance here, not promoting it. You might have done some research before posting your assessment of water supplies. You would have discovered that [14% of the population](http://water.usgs.gov/edu/wudo.html) pulls it’s water from wells. That’s 1 in 6 people. Then consider many smaller cities pull their water from rivers and lakes and operate on a shoe string budget. [Here’s](http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/how-polluted-is-us-drinking-water) a map showing states and the percentages of polluted water systems. Just a month ago in my state we had water contamination with microcystin in a [community of 400,000](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toledo-water-crisis-in-second-day-but-problems-long-coming/). While I’m sure you’re city delivers Perrier with options for lemon twists that’s not a guarantee for a great many people. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/22 "2014-09-04T03:58:41Z")
correction, 1 in 7 people on well water. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/23 "2014-09-04T04:22:25Z")
So 6 out of 7 or over 85% of the population aren’t on well water. That’s over 266,000,000 people that DON’T have an issue with the quality of the water coming from their taps. To make a blanket statement that is wrong for over 8 out of 10 people is wrong. I stand by my comments, you were promoting ignorance not fighting it. ---
**Author:** ![bluezooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@bluezooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluezooky)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/24 "2014-09-04T11:52:57Z")
It’s possible to add some hydrogen peroxide if your worried about your water quality, I don’t recall the proportions so you would need to research yourself but from personal experience it quite safe. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/25 "2014-09-04T14:45:10Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I have a deep well and think nothing brain eating lives down there. Of course, that’s precisely what they would make you think. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/26 "2014-09-04T15:20:10Z")
I use cooled boiled water (from well) for my neti pot. I have been boiling the water since I read about the Brain-Eating Amoebas. I keep a quart size canning jar of boiled water on the counter and replenish it when I make tea in the morning. I was using warm water from the tap; I am too lazy and frugal to buy and lug bottles of distilled water. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/27 "2014-09-04T15:43:06Z")
Seems like being a tea drinker is the key to wanting to use boiled water in one’s Neti pot! Ignorance fought 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/28 "2014-09-04T22:01:44Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > So 6 out of 7 or over 85% of the population aren’t on well water. That’s over 266,000,000 people that DON’T have an issue with the quality of the water coming from their taps. To make a blanket statement that is wrong for over 8 out of 10 people is wrong. > I stand by my comments, you were promoting ignorance not fighting it. Your version of a fighting ignorance is to blow off the 44 million people on well water in addition to the evidence that all municipalities do not have perfectly safe water. I cited a warning that involved a municipal water system with the deadly amoeba problem as well as a recent municipality with other bio-hazards that most people wouldn’t want to flush their nose out with. I also cited a map showing the percentages of failed water standards. You cited… nothing. You have no clue what kind of water people have yet you’ve proclaimed it safe. That’s one profoundly stupid piece of advice. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/29 "2014-09-06T14:56:36Z")
You would think people on this board would know better than to write things like “I do it and nothing bad has happened to me,” but I see we have a long way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421/30 "2014-09-06T15:00:39Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > You would think people on this board would know better than to write things like “I do it and nothing bad has happened to me,” but I see we have a long way to go. What people are implying is they realize that the risk is so very low with treated tap water that they use it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-use-boiled-tap-water-in-a-sinus-rinse/697421.md?page=1)