I worked in an office where I eventually realized I got annoying to bad GI problems whenever I drank the water (won't describe in detail but very atypical and I at first wondered why it only happened when I was in the office), and someone else there once mentioned they had the same problem. I always used the office-services provided glasses to drink out of, and reading this it seems very likely it could have been residue on them
Might also be the result of shitty water treatment or softening, or even the state of the water source, water main and pipes in the building. Some water softening is done via agents like EDTA, which are also used heavily in soaps and detergents.
Yup. I once found out that I had been drinking water from a source that had mold growing all inside the water fountain's plumbing itself. It explained why I constantly felt like shit, given my mold allergy.
I had issues severe enough to visit a gastroenterologist, which turned out to be caused by a water filter that wasn't being changed. I stopped consuming water going through that filter, and all symptoms went away within a day or two. It was stunning.
Same where I grew up. The town regularly won awards for far surpassing all the drinking water standards, even the super strict totally voluntary standards they additionally attempted to meet and exceed.
Then I moved to Houston. After talking with some water treatment engineers, I only drink bottled water here. Was very hard to change my habits.
I don't know about the health side, but growing up on South Australian rain and tap water, I think the Sydney tap water tastes absolutely foul by comparison.
True story... Years ago, my friend (let's call her "Alice") and I put it together that whenever we went over to "Bob's" house for dinner we both got the runs. Finally, one of us mentioned it to Bob and he immediately blamed his wife: "I've told her," he said, "sometimes she doesn't wash the soap off the plates well enough." Something like that had never occurred to me. Sheer speculation, but it made some sense, as the dinners themselves were fairly basic.
