# Very pure water dangerous to drink?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 17, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706 "2022-02-17T22:32:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/101 "2022-02-20T05:30:23Z")
“Burn your insides” is excessive, but I happen to know that if I get distilled water up my nose, it “burns” like Hell if I forget to buffer it with sodium bicarbonate.
---
### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/102 "2022-02-20T07:50:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> severe acute damage, such as hyponatremic shock or delirium, may occur following intense physical efforts and ingestion of several litres of low mineral water
Plain old tap water can do that, too.
---
### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/103 "2022-02-20T08:06:05Z")
I’ve been injected with both pure water and isotonic water. Pure water is quite painful. I wonder if this somehow contributes to the “burn your insides” myth? It does produce a painful burning sensation and causes localized cellular lysis due to the reasons mentioned upthread. It rushes into the cells and causes them to burst.
This was used as a training aid when learning to give shots and administer medication. The correct syringes were filled with isotonic water. The wrong “medication” was filled with pure water. If your partner made a mistake, you felt it! This might be a standard practice in medical schools. I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just the sick & twisted military pedagogy. But if this is a common teaching method, we could have a bunch of medical professionals who have experienced the pain causesd by pure water and have mistakenly concluded that swallowing a lot of it would be even worse. Then, they later spread that information. That’s how myths are born. To be honest, there was a period after being injected with pure water, that I naturally believe it myself. The problem was that I just didn’t put much thought into it. I just figured, “Oh, better not drink the stuff” and “So, that’s why there’s warning labels on it”.
So I can very easily see how such a myth can spread. People just repeat it without putting much thought into it. Some of these people might even be doctors, which adds credibility to the myth.
---
### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/104 "2022-02-20T10:13:25Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > severe acute damage, such as hyponatremic shock or delirium, may occur following intense physical efforts and ingestion of several litres of low mineral water
>
> Plain old tap water can do that, too.
Yes, it happens sometimes after marathons, or during military training. And apparently it happens even to people consuming “sports drinks”.
> **[Water intoxication](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication)**
>
> Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, hyperhydration, overhydration, water toxemia or hyponatremia is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that can result when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe limits by excessive water intake.
> Under normal circumstances, accidentally consuming too much water is exceptionally rare. Most deaths related to water intoxication in healthy individuals have resulted either from water-drinking contests, in w...
---
### Author:  [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/105 "2022-02-20T10:50:24Z")
And as Oscar Wilde is supposed to have said:
“Drink water? But fishes fornicate in it!”
But don’t drink Anomalous Water or Polymerized Water: ‘Polywater’
> **[The Rise and Fall of Polywater](https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-rise-and-fall-of-polywater)**
>
> In a backwater Soviet laboratory in the early 1960s, Nikolai Fedyakin toiled away at his research. Fedyakin worked at the technological institute in Kostroma, an old city on the Volga River 200 miles northeast of Moscow. Some would say this bygone...
In 1971 a friend of mine was allowed to do a final-year undergraduate project and thesis on Polywater: the idea had not been completely exploded by then!
Interestingly, the article references Vonnegut’s ‘Cat’s Cradle’ and Ice-9.
---
### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/106 "2022-02-20T12:38:52Z")
Just to note, even in 1971 there was research published on water molecule dynamics via computer simulation. Naturally, today it is even more feasible to simulate water clusters and bulk properties of water:
[ ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Iscosahedral_water_cluster_100.png)
[ ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/MD_water.gif)
ETA as for polywater, aka “water clusters”, according to Wikipedia, they “have been observed in the gas phase and in dilute mixtures of water and non-polar solvents…”
---
### Author:  [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/107 "2022-02-20T16:02:30Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Just to note, even in 1971 there was research published on water molecule dynamics via computer simulation.
It wasn’t the greatest Physics school in the world (or even in the district). At that time we had to fight with an Elliott 803 with a punched-card interface. We’d send a deck of cards to the other campus, and maybe get results in a week. Not much simulation there, and the publications library facilities were no better!
As I recall (from 51 years ago!) Andy was working on techniques to confirm or deny the current hypothesis, that the apparent Polywater was due to experimental
contamination with silicones. I don’t think he got as far as seeing the apparent PW.
Our course was Applied Physics, so sadly he wasn’t trying to make Polywater but to develop techniques. But I know Ice-Nine was on his mind!
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/108 "2022-02-20T23:41:50Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#):
>
> This relative’s spouse is a doctor so whatever they were doing was not woo.
I fail to see the connection. How does the spouse being a doctor mean that this isn’t woo?
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/109 "2022-02-21T00:39:04Z")
A bit of a tangent, but I wonder if some “horizontal meme transfer” has caused confusion in relation to water:
95% ethanol is “safe” to drink (inadvisable, maybe). 99.9% ethanol is not safe to drink. It’s not because of the higher ethanol content–the difference in that respect is negligible (especially as it’ll get diluted as soon as it hits your mouth). The reason is that while 95% ethanol is contaminated with pure water, the 99.9% stuff is likely contaminated with benzene. You can’t get more than ~95% ethanol via distillation, so for more than that you need some extra solvent to remove the water, and in practice that is probably benzene. And you don’t want to consume even small quantities of benzene.
In other words, the higher purity stuff is bad for you, but not because of the purity itself, but rather how that purity was achieved. It’s possible some people applied the same ideas to water even though it’s inappropriate in that case.
---
### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/110 "2022-02-21T02:30:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> > [@ratatoskK](#):
> >
> > This relative’s spouse is a doctor so whatever they were doing was not woo.
>
> I fail to see the connection. How does the spouse being a doctor mean that this isn’t woo?
Even if the _relative_ was a physician and/or PhD, that wouldn’t guarantee that it wasn’t woo.
---
### Author:  [@lum\_s\_husband](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lum_s_husband)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/111 "2022-02-21T03:41:53Z")
Or ever have the PhD or MD yourself. See one Oz, Dr.
---
### Author:  [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/112 "2022-02-21T15:21:21Z")
ok, ok. I’ve known the relative-doctor since childhood, they’re not an idiot, trust me.
---
### Author:  [@slalexan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slalexan)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/113 "2022-02-21T15:38:41Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> The reason is that while 95% ethanol is contaminated with pure water, the 99.9% stuff is likely contaminated with benzene. You can’t get more than ~95% ethanol via distillation, so for more than that you need some extra solvent to remove the water, and in practice that is probably benzene. And you don’t want to consume even small quantities of benzene.
It’s called an azeotrope! Distillation works because the some of the stuff in a mixture boils at different temperatures. If you can heat the mixture to a point where its above/at the boiling point of one of the things in your mixture but below the boiling point of the other thing, then you get only (or mostly) the one thing in the vapor. But its not actually that simple so the stuff will interact and change each other’s boiling points. Sometimes, that change is enough to where all the components of the mixture are boiling at the same point so the vapor is just as mixed as the mixture. Finally, some use for my chemical engineering degree. (JK, I work in a paint plant as an engineer. I just don’t do distillation here)
Additionally, some of the lab grade ethanol is also not safe to drink because it’s denatured, which means its contaminated with things you don’t want to drink so that you don’t drink it. Always read those labels. Also, don’t look for drinks in the lab. Eating and drinking in the lab is a bad idea.
---
### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/114 "2022-02-21T15:48:18Z")
> [@SoToasty](#):
>
> Why do people say this stuff about aquariums, freshwater fish and so on. No, your fish won’t explode or die if you use distilled water. If your fish died, it was because you did not acclimate them to the tank or new water
When I had a freshwater tank, I used tap water. The _only_ thing I did, and not even every time, was add a little bit of Seachem [Prime](https://www.seachem.com/prime.php) to help clean up the water a bit, but that was it. In general, I attached a hose to the tap and ran it directly to the tank.
However, with saltwater and a reef tank, I use RODI (Reverse Osmosis De-Ionized) water. I know a lot of people use distilled water with no issues, but that vast majority of people with reef tanks use RODI.
RODI water is generally considered something you don’t want to be drinking, at least not on any kind of regular basis. From time to time, people will pop up on message boards claiming that they’ve been drinking RODI water for years with no ill effects. However, more often than not, they’re drinking RO water that was made with a system that didn’t have any DI cartridges.
I know some people use tap water, but we often find out they use tap water because there’s something going on with the tank and when asked about their water source we find out they’re using unfiltered tap water which can introduce all kinds of things into the tank that can cause all kinds of other problems.
---
### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/115 "2022-02-21T15:50:49Z")
“Trust me, my relative’s a doctor.” 🙂
---
### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/116 "2022-02-21T16:44:30Z")
I am sure there are techniques like vacuum distillation and whatnot that can produce a very pure ethanol, but are not in the pipeline of the “potable alcohol” or “rectified spirits” you can find in the grocery store. I suppose you could divert a sealed bottle of extremely pure ethanol _before_ it hits the lab, like I have seen done with sucrose for the coffee room, but that would be an expensive way to get your drink on.
---
### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/117 "2022-02-21T19:55:10Z")
Is it not possible to get pure water by burning two parts H and one part O in a controlled burn and collecting the end result?
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/118 "2022-02-21T20:16:04Z")
OK, then how are you purifying your hydrogen and oxygen? What are you burning them in, with what ignition method, and how are you collecting and storing it?
I mean, you could do it that way, but I’m not sure it offers any improvement over methods that start with water and just distill it or whatever.
---
### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/119 "2022-02-21T20:22:35Z")
That’s what I’m asking.
---
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706/120 "2022-02-21T23:45:51Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> In other words, the higher purity stuff is bad for you, but not because of the purity itself, but rather how that purity was achieved. It’s possible some people applied the same ideas to water even though it’s inappropriate in that case.
This is true. When I worked in a lab, we had access to both 191 and 200 proof alcohol for our party punch. But we were strongly advised not to use the latter since it contained significant amounts of benzene. Apparently you can get rid of (most of) the benzene by redistilling it over a charcoal filter, but why bother when the 191 proof was fine for a punch?
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706.md?page=5)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-pure-water-dangerous-to-drink/959706.md?page=7)