Posted on 09/18/2021 9:59:17 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Surpassed only by water, tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide. When boiled tap water is used to brew tea, residual chlorine in the water can react with tea compounds to form disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Researchers measured 60 DBPs in three types of tea, unexpectedly finding lower levels in brewed tea than in tap water. However, they also detected many unknown DBPs with uncertain health effects.
Although disinfection is important to ensure drinking water safety, a downside is DBP formation. Tea contains about 500 compounds, including polyphenols, amino acids, caffeine and others, that can react with chlorine to form DBPs, some of which have been linked in epidemiological studies with cancer and adverse birth outcomes. In addition, DBPs can form from reactions with compounds in the tap water itself. Susan Richardson and colleagues wanted to conduct a comprehensive survey to measure 60 known DBPs in three green and black teas popular in the U.S.
The researchers brewed the teas and then measured the compounds using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Levels of the 60 DBPs were higher in tap water than in the brewed teas, likely because many compounds evaporated or were absorbed by tea leaves. However, the 60 known DBPs comprised only 4% of the total organic halogen in tea, indicating that the majority of these compounds in tea are uncharacterized. The team identified 15 of these compounds -- which likely form from the reaction of chlorine with natural phenolic and polyphenolic precursors in tea leaves -- for the first time in the beverage. Although no "safe" levels have yet been established for most DBPs, for the ones that are regulated, an average person would need to drink 18-55 cups of tea per day to exceed the limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers say.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Probably most people never thought of this, good find. There must be chlorine in regular water because fisheries let the water sit out for several days to allow chlorine to escape before putting hatchlings in. The farmers say water straight from the hose would kill the freshly hatched young.
I’m sensitive to the taste of tea, especially green teas. I definitely notice the difference with water that has not been put through a carbon filter, also some well-waters really can mess up the taste also.
Let tap water sit out overnight and most chlorine will evaporate. We do this for coffee and when we make bread and pizza dough because it tastes better and the yeast works better with no chlorine.
F you are worried pour water into an open pot and let it outgas for a while.
What about bottled water? I suspect that most is simply tap water, so it would have chlorine...but it sits for a while before you buy it. OTOH, it is also usually bottled in plastic, which has its own set of issues. What are your thoughts?
Don’t white tea bags and Kuereg pod filters contain chlorine? European ones are tannish in color.
My 3rd book is entirely about drinking water.
Most people haven’t a clue what’s in the water they’re drinking.
We drink Deer Park bottled so called natural spring water a lot. We have it delivered 12 cases of 24 bottles per month. ReadyRefresh is the vendor…it’s about the same price as buying it at Walmart, but our Walmart was hit or miss to have it in stock, so we went that route and don’t have to haul it around the store and home. In GA, you can’t call it spring water if it’s anything else. Poland Springs water used to not sell here because they refuse fo admit it’s not spring water on their label…aqueducts and borehole wells. Deer Park and Poland Springs are both Nestle.
The plastics used in these bottles is monitored for BPA quite intensely because it’s so popular.
With normally chlorinated water, letting it sit out does let the chlorine evaporate. However, with chloramine, it does not, and there are by-products from that which remain in the water, too.
They are bleached, but if chlorine was used, it should have evaporated some time ago.
The issue I’ve heard about those items is simply the “environmental waste” behind bleaching an item that winds up immediately dirty when used just one time.
First of all you should not drink chlorinated tapwater
I personally distilled my own water
you can buy a love distiller for $99 that does 1 gallon at a time
or much more expensive models that cost $600-$1000
At the very least you should get a call again or other water filtration system to take out as much of the ions that are in the water before you drink it
Yep the Berkey takes out the fluoride.
I’m from Jax. My parents built their retirement home down around Green Cove Springs and their well was sulphur water. If you took a shower with any gold jewelry on it turned black. They finally got an aerator installed and the water was fine.
This is our favorite, and preferred, water....
https://www.mountainvalleyspring.com
We are on well water, that is filtered, but the above is our go-to bottled water.
“With normally chlorinated water, letting it sit out does let the chlorine evaporate. However, with chloramine, it does not, and there are by-products from that which remain in the water, too.”
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Good to know. I just looked up my town’s water quality report (Woodstock) and it “appears” we only have chlorine (free). When looking it up though, I found several places in GA that have chloroform and people are making some noise about that.
A carbon filter in the water line would remove most of the chlorine.
I used to play golf at Magnolia Point in GCS.
Also played at Eagle Harbor and Flemming Island Plantation.
I lived off of 17 & 220.
Yes,especially around Apalachicola.
Chloroform is not good. We used to euthanize lab animals with an overdose on that stuff because they would just black out with no pain involved.
But yea it was a woman who worked on a fish farm who explained why big tanks were left fish-free after filling them up.
Distilled water absorbs minerals from the intestine.
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