Not that I disbelieve you, but I live in the UK, and my bullshit indicator was pegged in the red from the very start of this thread. Maybe this is a common myth here, but I haven’t encountered much of it - and I have worked in jobs where we had to use large amounts of distilled water for topping off lead acid vehicle batteries.
I’m aware that the containers of distilled/deionised/purified water for industrial and vehicle use and such are clearly labelled ‘do not drink’ and haven’t ever drunk them - but not because of fear that it will make me implode, but because a) I have perfectly good tapwater and b) I generally assume labelling like that to be there because the product is not guaranteed to be safe in the same way that foodstuffs are supposed to be.
Aside from Mr. Callan being deluded, the only explanation I can see for this idiotic remark is that he wanted to discourage people from pilfering from the “pure” water supply for drinking purposes.
Or it’s not actually pure at all, because the job of installing the purification plant has been botched.
Plan:
Accept commission to build water purification plant
Install cheap, but impressive looking pipes and boxes with straight-through plumbing
Spend majority of money on purchase of a chateau in Provence
If asked about the purity of the water, answer: “Pure? Oh god, yeah, so pure. So very pure you would explode if you drank it, so don’t even look at it! Testing the purity? You want to test it? Oh, don’t do that! So pure it would just break your testing equipment. Pure water is like that, don’t you know?”
I’m getting really worried about this issue. Water quality in my home town is excellent, but I’d feel more comfortable if it were only average. The only way to stay safe is to stick to drinking urine, but I’m not sure how long this is sustainable.
This is one of the most charming ways I have ever been called an idiot, so, well, ignorance fought. This is not only a UK myth, that much I can tell you: I heard / read it in German and in Spanish.
Corollary: Distilled water meh, beer better.
If we’re to believe the Environmental Working Group (and not everyone does), municipal drinking water supplies and even bottled water are cesspools of toxins.
Distilled, reverse osmosis-treated super-filtered water collected in non-plastic, non-metal receptacles by aqueous cult virgins is probably the only semi-safe bet.
The article I linked back at # 35 actually does seem to feel that the techniques used make a substantial difference in how the sport is played. Although most of the emphasis seems to be on how the ‘pebble’ ice is added and it allows the distinctive motion of play.
Now whether or not it’s all sport-woo to support the guy’s job is beyond my skills at analysis. I don’t find curling to be particularly interesting, but hey, I don’t think most Olympic sports are - although I respect the athleticism and skill of most of the participants.
Like Mangetout, I grew up in the UK, and never heard anything like this. In fact, Malvern water has been promoted for its alleged health benefits for centuries as it is naturally very pure.
There is a very important reason why you should only drink distilled water or rainwater.
Ripper: Mandrake?
Mandrake: Yes, Jack?
Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
Mandrake: Well, I can’t say I have, Jack.
Ripper: Vodka, that’s what they drink, isn’t it? Never water?
Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that’s what they drink, Jack, yes.
Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can’t quite see what you’re getting at, Jack.
Ripper: Water, that’s what I’m getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this Earth’s surface is water. Why, do you realize that 70 percent of you is water?
Mandrake: Good Lord!
Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)
Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?
Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)
Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?
Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.
Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?
Mandrake: No, no I don’t know what it is, no.
Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
The EWG is full of shit. They set up their own absurd standards, and then bash public water utilities for not meeting them, when in fact they may far exceed any State and Federal regulations for those contaminants.
Case in point- Dallas Water Utilities water has 0.297 ppb of arsenic. The pertinent regulated amount is 10 ppb. EWG’s standard is 0.004 ppb, so they’re saying Dallas has 74x the guideline amount of arsenic, despite DWU exceeding the legal regulation by a similarly crazy amount.
And a lot of that stuff can’t actually be removed, save through expensive reverse osmosis or ion exchange filtration, which is exceedingly impractical to do on the scale of Dallas Water Utilities (1.3 million customers, 900 million gallons a day/139 billion gallons a year of treated water)
As others have mentioned, you can purchase bottles of laboratory-grade, ultrapure water (Type I). It has a resistivity of 18.2 MΩ·cm at 25 °C.
But here’s the thing: as soon as you open the bottle, the water is no longer ultrapure. CO₂ in the air will quickly dissolve into the water, and thus the water will become slightly acidic (forming carbonic acid) and its resistivity will decrease. If you want to keep the water ultrapure, you have to make sure the water never sees normal room air.
While we’re on the subject, one thing I’m uncertain about is the isotopic ratios for ultrapure water that’s purchased from commercial labs. Do all the water molecules contain ¹H; do any of the molecules contain ²H or ³H? Do all the water molecules contain ¹⁶O; do any of the molecules contain ¹⁷O or ¹⁸O? Or perhaps it’s VSMOW, where the ratios are defined?
Reverse osmosis, deiononised (sp?) water is used in marine aquariums. Marine salt is mixed with R/O DI water to approximate sea water. It is also used to top off aquariums, salt and fresh, replacing water that has evaporated, leaving the salts, ions and various minerals in the aquarium water.
I have seen inexperienced fresh water aquarium hobbyists replace all the tank water with R/O DI, and the fish promptly die.
Of course not. We are not constantly immersed in it, nor do we breath it, or depend upon it for our body chemistry. I merely point out that there is some small truth to the matter. It can kill you, if you are a fish.
Not especially, no. But for professional rinks like for pro hockey, my understanding is that some consideration is given to water quality. Some NHL teams have been known to complain about “soft ice” in some arenas, for instance. This could be due to faulty refrigeration equipment or ambient air temperature, but it could also be due to mineral content or other contaminants potentially lowering the freezing point of the water. Excessive minerals may also make the ice cloudy. There is an optimum temperature range for arena ice assuming relatively pure water that provides the best hardness without getting brittle while minimizing friction against skate blades.
Back on topic, I’ll just add that here in Canada, like in the US, distilled water is often sold alongside spring water and I can offer first-hand evidence that it’s easy to buy the wrong one. In fact I once not only bought a jug of distilled water by mistake, but drank most of it before I noticed. It tasted like pretty crappy spring water, but still better than the hard chlorinated tap water around here. It was probably made more tolerable by the fact that I kept it pretty cold. It was, of course, perfectly harmless, but then, note that common distilled water will usually be far from perfectly pure anyway.
That makes a lot of sense.
The plant where I was told all of this is in the UK. I had no reason to disbelieve someone who worked with the stuff daily and ran a plant making it, but in retrospect the UK connection starts to have some legs. I was given to understand that the advice was based on personal experience. But I do rather doubt that now.
