Many Wrongly Think Tap Water Is Safe for At-Home Medical Use

May 11, 2022 – While water out of your faucet usually is secure to drink, you shouldn’t use it for at-home medical functions like sinus rinsing, washing contact lenses, and filling respiratory gadgets. But new analysis means that many Americans – wrongly – suppose faucet water is secure for such makes use of.

In a survey of 1,004 adults within the U.S., about one in three folks stated that faucet water didn’t comprise micro organism or different residing organisms, and 26% stated water filters eliminated these microbes and thus sterilized water. Both statements are false: Tap water might comprise some microbes, and water filters can not take away these residing organisms from water.

Tap water goes via a multistep remedy course of that makes it secure for us to drink, and it should meet strict security requirements earlier than leaving a water remedy plant. But germs that naturally exist within the setting can stay.

As faucet water travels via miles of pipes all the best way to your faucet, it will probably choose up waterborne microbes, says Shanna Miko, DNP, of the Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch on the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Bottled water is held to the identical requirements and can also be not thought of sterile, she says.

Our our bodies encounter germs every single day, and most wholesome folks uncovered to these present in pipes don’t get sick. But some teams is perhaps at the next danger for an infection, like folks age 50 or older, infants beneath 6 months outdated, present and former people who smoke, folks with a weakened immune system, or these with diabetes, liver failure, or kidney failure.

“When we have this combination of vulnerable populations and using [tap water] in different ways, like putting it in our eyes or our nasal cavity or inhaling it into our lungs, that’s where the risk occurs,” Miko says.

The CDC advises that water used for nasal rinsing and the filling of respiratory gadgets ought to be sterile, that means that it doesn’t have any micro organism or different residing organisms. Contact lenses ought to solely be washed and saved in contemporary contact lens resolution, and wearers ought to keep away from any water touching their lenses, which incorporates swimming and bathing.

Still, there are instances the place folks have gotten infections resulting from misusing faucet water for medical functions, Miko says. In one excessive case, a lady died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba whereas utilizing faucet water in a nasal-flushing neti pot.

These forms of instances are uncommon, however it is vital that the general public understands find out how to “minimize their exposure to those germs at home,” she says, particularly if they’re notably susceptible to an infection.

Survey Results

To seize how the American public understands water sterility and the way they use faucet water at dwelling, Miko and colleagues designed a survey that they despatched to folks ages 18 and above from Aug. 16 via Aug. 18, 2021. The nationwide pattern was then weighted to signify of the U.S. inhabitants in gender, age, area, training, race, and ethnicity.

The outcomes of the survey have been offered on May 5, 2022, on the CDC’s annual Epidemic Intelligence Service Conference.

About 63% of individuals accurately answered that sterile water doesn’t comprise any micro organism or different microorganisms, and two-thirds knew that faucet water may comprise these microbes. But there was a disconnect on what was secure for at-home medical use, Miko says.

“Even though they recognized that tap water isn’t sterile, they still agreed that it was OK to use for nasal rinsing and contact lens rinsing or storage and even in respiratory devices like home humidifiers, like the CPAP machines that some people use at nighttime,” she says.

More than half of individuals (62.4%) stated faucet water was secure for nasal rinsing, half (50.1%) stated it was secure for rinsing contact lenses, and 41.5% stated that it may very well be safely used for medical respirator gadgets and humidifiers.

But far fewer folks reported really utilizing faucet water for these duties. About one in 4 (24%) stated they crammed medical respirator gadgets with faucet water, 12.7% stated they used faucet water for nasal rinsing, and about 9% stated they used it to rinse contact lenses.

The outcomes present “there is a really dramatic need for education of the public relating to tap water,” says Rachel Noble, PhD, who does analysis on water high quality and public well being on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was not concerned within the research.

“It’s pretty clear that most people know that sterile means that nothing is growing in your water,” she says. The confusion, she says, lies in whether or not faucet water may be safely used for medical functions.

Safe, Sterile Water

While water straight out of the faucet shouldn’t be used for these procedures, boiling the water is a simple method to kill any micro organism, viruses, or different microbes and make it secure for nasal rising or filling medical respiratory gadgets, Miko says. The water ought to be boiled for 1 minute after which left to chill.

If you don’t wish to boil your water, it’s also possible to buy sterile or distilled water, that are each secure for at-home medical use. The CDC’s Healthy Water website additionally has info on cleansing water at dwelling.

While the survey was meant to point out find out how to deal with water that’s for at-home medical use, Miko says that faucet water is handled and sanitized and “is meant to be safe for drinking, cooking, and self-care like bathing, tooth brushing, and laundry.”

While most wholesome folks won’t get sick from germs they may discover in water, the small steps of boiling it or shopping for sterilized water for at-home medical use can assist stop infections, particularly in folks at increased danger.

“We don’t want to scare people,” she says. “We just want people to be as healthy as they can be.”