Safety of drinking water

[Chris]

I read somewhere that the tap water in parts of Brittany has been so polluted through intensive agriculture (Nitrates etc) that it isn't safe to drink. Is this still the case, or has the act been cleaned up? Can anybody say in which areas this problem might still be a cause for concern?  All comments welcome!

[Dick Smith]

If you have mains water you should be able to get a certificate/statement of quality from your provider. If it is well water, or if you aren't convinced,  the local pharmacy should be able to test it for you.

[chris pp]

The water where we are, Poitou-Charentes, often exceeds the EU permitted levels for nitrates, the difficulty is that it isn't a constant, so much depends on the time of year, dry spells, rainfall, and the level of the nappe. If levels are very low and then there is a lot of rain there is a concentration.

There's a bit of a campaign from INRA at the moment to try and convince the farmers to use less, not only nitrates, but herbicides and pesticides as well, but it doesn't seem to be having much impact "on the ground" so to speak.

A water filter is good.

Chris

[Chris]

Thank you for these responses. I was hoping to find an area  with safe(r) water to buy in order to avoid the problem, but it looks like I'd better buy my wife (a former chemist) her own testing lab when we get to France!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

There is not yet any clear evidence implicating high levels of nitrates

in drinking water with health problems, thougth some authorities are

convinced that it is at least a contributing factor in "blue baby

syndrome."

Personally, speaking as a former chemist (the woods are full of them!

Every second person I seem to meet at the moment has a degree in

chemistry. None of us seem to have ever actually been employed as

chemists, though.Quite often we're painful in the way reformed smokers

can be painful - always looking at labels in the supermarket, drawing

in breath in a slow whistle, shaking our heads and muttering to

ourselves, before putting the item back on the shelf and issuing dire

warnings of ill health to anyone in hearing range ), I would seek to

avoid nitrate levels above WHO guidelines.

Water filters cannot remove nitrates from water - they are just too

soluble. What they can do is remove particulate matter and may remove

pesticide residues. For these reasons alone they are a good idea. There

are ways to remove nitrates from water, but they are expensive. Far

better to stop them getting in there in the first place.

[Cassis]

Is the wine safe?  If not, I fear it may be too late for me. [:'(]

If you want a good source (sorry) of info and links on watery matters, try here.

WATER

The DDASS is responsible for public health matters.

[Chris]

Very helpful, thank you, although it's disturbing to realise that levels in the water can fluctuate according to weather conditions. Presumably this means you could test the water before buying a property and it might be fine, then a month in you could realise you had a real problem. As somebody who has survived cancer once I'm quite keen not to spend my retirement imbibing carcinogens, especially as, for reasons of alternative plumbing, I need to drink 2 - 3 pints per day!  Drinking this kind of volume makes the wine alternative impractical, since I'd like to remember at least some of the retirement I've spent so long saving up for!

[Patf]

At one time the nitrate level in our water went above the acceptable level and it was announced in the local press. And again when it was safe to drink. You could always try bottled water though some say that just comes from  someone's tap. I don't think 2- 3 pints a day is a lot - we drink that amount. An adult should drink at least 5 pints of water a day in hot weather. Pat.

[Beryl]

The supermarkets by me (29) do a good trade in bottled water but I thought nothing of it as I drink bottled water and only use tap water for cooking and hot drinks.

[Chris]

Very helpful , thank you - so there is an awareness and a monitoring process regarding water quality. 5 pints of water a day - strewth!  I'd better get in practice!

[Dick Smith]

Just spotted this:

L'eau est redevenue potable en Basse-Normandie

agrandir la photo

ROUEN (Reuters) - L'eau est redevenue potable en Normandie, à Vire et ses alentours (Calvados), après un épisode de pollution qui avait contraint la préfecture à interdire sa consommation, apprend-on de source autorisée.

Les 10.800 habitants concernés, habitant

Vire, Vaudry et Saint-Germain-de-Tallevende, sont à nouveau alimentés

normalement depuis dimanche soir. La préfecture leur conseille

néanmoins de laisser couler l'eau avant de l'utiliser.

La turbidité constatée proviendrait, selon les services municipaux, d'orages tombés sur la région la semaine dernière.

[Deimos]

I would agree with the "has bad periods" comment from above. But then so does water in the UK. I remember catching cryptosporidium when Thames Water just went through one of the "bad periods". Some UK water poisonings get to the papers. Remember the aluminium (?) poisoning issue somewhere down in the West Country - a pretty serious one I seem to remember.

Ian

[powerdesal]

All these comments make me realise that I'm in the right business.

[Jonzjob]

Hi Chris, it may be worth looking at this site. We have a Pozzani filter plumbed into our cold water in the kitchen. We had one, in the U.K. for years before we moved to France and even fitted one in our caravan. They supply to France, we bought our 3rd one when we bought our house here, and they do a nitrate removal filter. Have a look at the link below.

http://www.pozzani.co.uk/water-filters-67/product_info.html?osCsid=dfc4fe6b17ab02b0e37351493e8ba38a

They are very helpful.

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="powerdesal"]All these comments make me realise that I'm in the right business.
[/quote]

And there was I thinking it was to do with desal enjinez?

[powerdesal]

I cant do a JC and turn water into wine but I do mean job of turning sea water into very high quality drinking water, and its mostly with French kit too.[:D]

[Jonzjob]

Well Steve, you do have your limitations I sea. I can go one further than that and turn wine into water (well nearly). Do the same with beeer aswelll!![Www]

[powerdesal]

Subtle John, very subtle use of 'sea'    [8-|]

[Cassis]

I hope you are not too deeply into recycling, John.  [;-)]

Glad you took John's comments in good heart and did not sea red, Steve.

[powerdesal]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]Well Steve, you do have your limitations I sea. I can go one further than that and turn wine into water (well nearly). Do the same with beeer aswelll!![Www][/quote]

I do it with 46 million gallons a day, whats your record   [:D]

Phil, have you been drummed out??????

[Cassis]

It's this alternative universe we are exploring on another thread - I seem to be regressing.  I'll see what I can do about it.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="powerdesal"]I cant do a JC and turn water into wine but I

do mean job of turning sea water into very high quality drinking water,

and its mostly with French kit too.[:D]

[/quote]

Steve - out of curiousity, one you've desalinated the water, do you

then add the mineral cocktail that makes water taste like, well, water?

The reason I ask is that I once knew a Maltese bloke who was trying to

improve the (oddly unpleasent) taste of de-sal water on that fine

island by adding a carefully concocted mixture of sodium bicarbonate,

potassium sulphate and calcium chloride. I've no idea if he succeded.

[powerdesal]

JonD, we certainly do. Desalinated water is distilled water and tastes awful, technically it will also kill you because, if there were no minerals / salts in it you would leach out your body salts over time and then you go toes up [:(]

Our latest 'potabilisation' plant involves dissolving CO2 in a proportion of the distillate to (effectively) make a weak carbonic acid ( or at least a low ph water) this then goes into/through vessels containing limestone which dissolves. The treated stream is then mixed with the balance of the untreated distillate. All the process is obviously closely controlled and we work to WHO specifications for potable water in all aspects. We also dose with hypochlorite to disinfect. Traditionally the sodium hypochlorite was electrolytically derived from sea water but modern thinking says that that method leaves bromate in the water which is carcinogenic. We now have to use a pure salt solution to stop the bromate.

We refer to the fact that we have to 'pollute' the pure product to make it palatable.

I am not a chemical engineer and I am sure there must be chemists / ex-chemists on this forum who can explain better. Suffice to say that all our water is passed by our station chemist  [+o(]

[Deimos]

[quote user="powerdesal"]JonD, we certainly do. Desalinated water is distilled water and tastes awful, technically it will also kill you because, if there were no minerals / salts in it you would leach out your body salts over time and then you go toes up [:(]

Our latest 'potabilisation' plant involves dissolving CO2 in a proportion of the distillate to (effectively) make a weak carbonic acid ( or at least a low ph water) this then goes into/through vessels containing limestone which dissolves. The treated stream is then mixed with the balance of the untreated distillate. All the process is obviously closely controlled and we work to WHO specifications for potable water in all aspects. We also dose with hypochlorite to disinfect. Traditionally the sodium hypochlorite was electrolytically derived from sea water but modern thinking says that that method leaves bromate in the water which is carcinogenic. We now have to use a pure salt solution to stop the bromate.

We refer to the fact that we have to 'pollute' the pure product to make it palatable.

I am not a chemical engineer and I am sure there must be chemists / ex-chemists on this forum who can explain better. Suffice to say that all our water is passed by our station chemist  [+o(]

[/quote]

Didn't Coke Cola start trying to do something similar with water from South London.  I thought they bottled it and then sold it at some extortionate price ?

Ian

[powerdesal]

[quote user="Deimos"]

Didn't Coke Cola start trying to do something similar with water from South London.  I thought they bottled it and then sold it at some extortionate price ?

Ian

[/quote]

Not really, they were making fizzy water, we neutralise the residual CO2 after its left the limestone absorbers. Our water is 'flat' not fizzy, ie its not left in a carbonated state.

We only use 30% of the distillate stream through the CO2 absorbers and limestone absorbers. Post treatment ensures no residual CO2 in the potable product outlet.