Swiss Tap Water

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
181
I found it ridiculously delicious

182
I agree, but unfortunately since I am living Switzerland I wont be having swiss tap water anymore!

I will be back to the crappy, water from Sweden!

183
The controls on Tap water are very high, far higher than for bottled water.

Plus with Bottled water there are teh environmental costs:

http://www.ecoglobe.ch/water/e/bott7917.htm

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com...led-water/1129

http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2588

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007..._calculate.php

I drink Tap water at home which is piped through a filter in our fridge. But I admit to drinking bottled water at work due to convenience.

At UBS in Opfikon, they switched from providing free bottled water to setting up water station providing filtered/cooled and even carbonated tap water.

184
Is this the reason for the sight improvement in their share price?

185
I think there is a tint of something in the tap water in zurich. I am not exactly sure what it is...salt?? I am used to the cold tap water in iceland, and honestly, nothing is comparable to it. The hot tap water in IS is a whole different story though..

186
It has a lot of calcium, doesn't it? Try boiling it, then let it cool. What floats on top?

187
montreal ;-))

188
Yeah!!!! Taste like metal... from the pipes! ewwww!

189
Is there actually a way to check the composition of tap water? Like an official website or smth?

I've read somewhere on this forum that in Basel chlorine used to be added and that they skipped this practice since delivering water also to the bordering French villages, but I feel a chlorine smell when taking showers and it doesn't make me feel comfortable

Or maybe it's not a chlorine smell, but definitely smth that should not be in water. Could it be that they add smth to the water that is heated?

190
Swiss water tastes pretty decent, but too much Calcium in it.

I also like to avoid the fluoride in drinking water (mass mind control drug), but not sure how much is added here.

191
It's very tasty, hard water tastes better. I have never tasted better water, in fact. Maybe in Canada.

High level of minerals, I agree - have to brush my teeth like cwazy and decalcify the whole kitchen frequently. But the taste is so nice .

192
http://www.wasserqualitaet.ch/ / Deutsch / Enter your location next to 'Wasserversorgungsname / Gemeinde' and click on 'Suchen ...' / etc.

In Basel, Novartis etc. might add some 'taste' to the ground water ...

Martin

193
I'm no expert on tap water, but I was under the impression that chlorine is a standard additive to municipal water in large, "first-world" cities, for health reasons -- it's a powerful disinfectant. Was it definitely chlorine that you read about -- or could it have been fluoride? Basel discontinued the addition of fluoride to drinking water some time ago, following a citizens' vote.

This means that children, in particular, need to ensure that they receive sufficient fluoride topically (direct to the external surfaces of the teeth) to protect against caries. My dentist assures me that toothpaste, twice a day, should be sufficient. I remember taking fluoride tablets for years as a child; modern science apparently suggests this was a waste of time as the fluoride needs to be in contact with the enamel surfaces, and systemic fluoride has little effect. Drinking fluoridated water therefore provides some prophylaxis against tooth decay.

I believe that all Swiss cantons have now discontinued fluoridation of municipal water. But I don't think fears of "mass mind control" were at the heart of those cantonal decisions. That crackpot conspiracy theory has been discredited over and over again, while the health benefits of topical fluoridation of teeth have been demonstrated repeatedly.

194
Just to give you one example. In most of Zurich what you get out of the water tap is, depending on season, 50% of cleaned Lake of Zurich water and 50% of water from springs of the Sihl valley. The mixture you get differs all over Switzerland and is not really what you expect

Interesting is that the water can differ within one "commune". We had our offices in one place of Glattbrugg and I had my apartment in Adliswil. We moved offices in Glattbrugg to a different place and I took apartment in the same place .... the water is slightly lesser than in Wollishofen and Adliswil but ways better than in the previous office place ... confirming what my scientist cousin told me .... that political communes are irrelevant in this regard !

195
As Nathu stated already two years ago, there is no fluorine added anywhere in Switzerland. The canton Basel Stadt added it since the 'sixties but discontinued this practice a few years ago since the entire country is getting enough fluoride through kitchen salt (JuraSel), and they would have had to replace the old fluorination equipment anyway.

As for chlorine -- I've never smelled such in any tap water in Switzerland, whereas in the USA, I often feel like entering an indoor swimming pool when opening an tap. You needn't even drink it, you smell it at a distance of several feet. At Washington Dulles Airport, I once poured a cup of 7-up from a vending machine into a toilet because it was so chlorinated I just couldn't drink it. Those vending machines use concentrates diluted in local tap water.

196
This morning I was thinking about my hair and how it felt strange lately. and then I found this thread, how strange is that?

Anyway, Ive been going out of my way to find my favorite schampoo (normally I just use whatever is closest but since this thing with the hair has been annoying me I decided to do something about it) but it does not really help, my hair still feels dirty and i dont know, messed up.

Has anyone been able to decipher this mystery???

(the mystery being how to get the same good hair feeling you are used to while taking regular showers in zürich )

197
I remember during trips back home to California that even my daughter would comment on the funny smelling/tasting water there and that was when she was only 8..!

198
The way hair feels after washing very often depends on the hardness of the water.

199
Aha. I presume that means it would make sense to hunt for a new schampoo then? Or am I eternally doomed to bad hair?

200
Agreed. Everybody uses activated carbon water filter around here. Those work great.