A crate of mineral water drag from the supermarket to home, the other simply on the faucet. Which water is better, there is a Consensus about rare. FOCUS Online has interviewed an expert.
Bottled water advertises a variety of vital substances, its quality, because it comes from pure, often deep sources.
In comparison, tap water has a bad reputation. In particular, the increasing burden of pollutants, it seems to make inferior thirst quencher.
Nitrate-rich drinking water is diluted until it is harmless
“In regions with intensive agriculture, such as, for example, lower Saxony, nitrate can pollute from manure the ground water,” confirms Ina Bock Holt, technical editor for nutrition and health at the Foundation goods test. Before this water gets into the lines, to prepare it the water works but. You need to get, for example, to strong with nitrate-contaminated water with nitratarmem dilute, explained Ina Bock, which oversees, among other things, the Tests on the subject of mineral water and drinking water. As a result, the treatment of drinking water would be complex and expensive.
Water check plants several times a day
What comes in the lines, so it is harmless. “The quality of the tap water in Germany is good, as the latest report by the Federal environmental office shows. This is the result we also have at our Test from 2016, we have examined the tap water of 28 cities and municipalities.“ Because drinking water is the most studied food, clarifies the specialist. In big cities like Munich, for example, it will be examined several times a day on hundreds of parameters, in accordance with the German drinking water regulation.
Bottled water is less monitored
Quite different to the mineral water. “It doesn’t have to be as closely monitored as tap water,” explains Ina Bock brings the difference. Its processing is also different than the drinking water comes from ground water and upper ground water, such as lakes and rivers. Mineral water has its origin in the underground sources, which must be protected by a “hardly water-permeable layer of rock”.
Rust inhibitors in mineral water
The fountain companies would be bottling directly and virtually untreated close to the source of Support. Nevertheless, in Tests, in the case of some mineral waters about degradation products of pesticides, sweeteners or rust have been found protection. The residues were in the Test, however, so small that they posed no risk to health.
Bottled water – the overestimated thirst quencher
Also, the mineral content of the bottled waters tend to be less well-expected. Two-thirds were in the Test, even minerals from a farm and, therefore, less of these vital substances than tap water from a mineral-rich area. Depending on the Region the drinking water is, in fact, especially calcium – or magnesium-containing or rich in other minerals. The exact values can be obtained from the local health authorities.
Tap water scores more often than bottled water
Against this Background, the decision to delete his thirst with tap water is certainly wrong – in terms of waste generation and environmental protection. Because the plastic bottles in which bottled water is often available, strain on the environment, humans and animals in a sustainable way. Also under this aspect, tap water is a good Alternative.
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Drinking water is clean up to the house connection
Still remains the Argument, lead and copper from the drinking water pipes can pipe water strain. However, this is true today. Pipes from these risky materials that can emit metal into the drinking water, there are today only very rarely, such as in unrenovated old buildings, calms the water expert: “The water works to guarantee a good quality of drinking water to the house connection, then the owners of the house have a duty.” From what materials are the water pipes in your house, you will learn in the property management or owner.