Forget the internet, forget the Large Hadron Collider.
Hell, even forget the reusable Dragon spacecraft from Elon Musk’s SpaceX - the tap is truly
the greatest invention of civilization, isn’t it?
Alright, that’s perhaps a very weighty hyperbole - but what a time to be alive!
On command water!
We kind of take it for granted though, don’t we?
For those of us that are fortunate enough to live in a house with free-flowing tap water
- the magical properties of being able to saunter over to the kitchen, flip a handle
and instantly have a glass of ice-cold water is something that we should all be appreciative
of - but, have you ever asked yourself the question - what am I *actually* drinking?
Hm.
Well, let’s find out.
Hello internet - and once again welcome back to the most inquisitive channel on YouTube
- Life’s Biggest Questions.
As per usual, I’ll be your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch - as today, we curiously
ask the question - What Is Actually In Our Tap Water?
Roll the clip.
For the curious amongst you, that clip was from
2013’s The World’s End written and directed by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright - because,
well - if I’m being frank with you all, it’s pretty difficult to find any kind of
tap-water based cinematic content.
I mean, it was either that - or this.
Yeah.
You can see what I’m dealing with, right?
Anyway, that’s beside the point.
Tap water.
What’s in it?
Well, what better way to find out than with an incredibly brief history of everyone’s
favourite subject.
Sanitation!
And who do we have to thank for that?
Well, you might think - the Romans of course - because what have the Romans ever done for
us?
Everything!
But no, although partly correct - you’d be slightly mistaken - because the history
of sanitation can be traced all the way back to the Indus Valley Civilization, an ancient
society that successfully cultivated vast areas of South Asia between 3300 BCE and 1300
BCE.
After that, everyone pretty much got the message that it was important to have clean - excrement
free running water - and evidence of sanitation based means have been found in Ancient China,
Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia - Persia - yeah, you get the picture.
Pretty much everywhere.
Humanity quickly discovered - for the most part - that if there’s any kind of creepy
nastiness floating around in your wooden drinking bowl, you’re going to get really, really
sick.
And that isn’t good.
Stay safe everybody.
It wasn’t until 1775 that the whole tap water phenomena kicked off though, with none
other - than the flushing toilet - and a Scottish watchmaker - a man named Alexander Cummings
- had the incredible idea of creating the S-Pipe, a curved facet of a pipe that could
retain water permanently, preventing sewer gases from entering the home - which would
eventually lead to Thomas Crapper’s U-shaped trap and his revolutionary toilet of 1880.
It was based upon a previous notion though, an idea that forms the second basis of why
we can have poo-free water - and it was proliferated by none other than Sir Francis Bacon way back
in 1671 - who noticed that if he dug a hole close to the seashore, the water would be
purified by layers and layers of sand.
Eventually - this gave rise to the first ever municipal water purifying plant in the world
- built in the small town of Paisley, Scotland way back in 1804 - that used layers of gravel
filters and concentric sand to treat readily available water.
After that, in 1827 - a man named Robert Thom invented slow sand filters after condensing
the method into a more readily available form - and two years later, in 1829 - James Simpson
took that idea and developed a system that was pretty much used around the world.
It struck a chord with us humans though, and civilization quickly realised that as our
towns became vast cities - interconnected with infrastructure and municipal means - it
was very important to the success of society to make sure everybody had safe and clean
water to drink.
In the 19th century, after officials of the City of London noticed that cholera deaths
had decreased after the same water treatment systems had been installed - they passed the
Metropolitan Water Act of 1852 - ensuring that all water supplied to the city would
be filtered.
And here we are now, pretty much anyway - as the vast majority of modern society has gone
to great lengths in filtering out the nastiness of chewy water.
But what were they exactly so scared of?
Well, you may be expecting this particular LBQ to scare you away with some sweeping statement
that there’s strange juju in the water that’s making us all want to buy more Apple products
or turn into zombies at the flick of a governmental switch - but no.
It’s simple really.
The main objective of Clean Tap Water is to make sure that there’s no poo in it - but
beside that, it’s a pretty simple set of ingredients.
Liquified chlorine.
Fluorosilicic acid.
Aluminium sulphate.
Calcium hydroxide.
And Sodium silicofluoride.
A relatively safe set of chemicals that make sure there’s nothing nasty swimming around
in your tap water at the point of treatment.
But after it leaves that treatment point - that's where things get a little complicated.
Because the real answer to this question is - it kind of depends where you live.
Take London for example, where the vast majority of the cities plumbing are still remnants
of the Victorian era.
It goes without saying, but rushing water through the same kind of pipe has a habit
of eventually leaving behind trace salts.
These may include small amounts of arsenic, radium, aluminium, copper, lead, mercury,
cadmium, barium - as well as trace amounts of hormones, nitrates and pesticides from
soil.
For the most part, such a small amount of trace elements have no adverse effect, and
the city of London - as well as the rest of the UK - are going to great lengths in revamping
their dated plumbing system.
The burden of trust lies within the municipal responsibility of society, and in some cases
- that trust can be overwhelmingly neglected.
Take the city of Flint, Michigan for example - an extraordinary case of official oversight
that began in April 2014 - and is still going on to this day.
The crisis began after the city decided to change their water source from Lake Huron
and the Detroit River - to the cheaper option, the Flint River - and due to insufficient
water treatment, contaminants leached into the pipes - exposing over 100 thousand residents
to high levels of lead, all for the sake of saving a few dollars.
Since 2014, the residents of Flint have had to rely on bottled water to get by in their
day to day lives - and the crisis has tragically led to the deaths of 12 people from an outbreak
of Legionnaires disease.
In 2017, some city officials claimed that the water quality of Flint had returned to
acceptable levels.
Not true - and a gross oversight, as the residents of Flint are still going to great lengths
in exposing the dangerous water supply of the city.
The truth of the matter is, we take our tap water for granted - and the historical efforts
of some of civilization's greatest inventors have strived to give every member of society
access to safe, clean running water.
Technology in water treatment can only take us so far though, and our responsibility as
members of society is to ensure that the crisis of Flint, Michigan doesn’t become a common
occurrence.
The solution is there - it has been for thousands of years.
Civilization has advanced by providing safe access to water through innovative means - but
the main point of concern, is to make sure that same technology is working for everyone
- and not just those in power.
It’s our responsibility to make sure that things are a little bit less - somebody’s
poisoned the water hole - and a little bit more - too infinity, and beyond.
Hey, look at that.
A Toy Story reference.
Well, there we have it folks - our roundabout answer to What’s Actually In Our Tap Water.
Quite a few things!
But most of them are good.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Speak your mind freely in the comment section down below.
Before we depart though, let’s take a quick look at some of your more resounding remarks
from over the past few days.
-- Yo Human Frisk says -- Jack Finch: Somebody or some society has more something than you
can shake a stick at.
--- Nooo!
Human Frisk - you’ve found my golden ratio, how did you figure out my formula for the
perfect LBQ video?
I’m going to have to change the whole shaking stick shtick up, aren’t I?
Ah, another one bites the dust.
Well - on that slightly depressing note, that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s video
- cheers for sticking around all the way until the end.
If you were a fan of this particular video, or just LBQ in general - then please, be a
dear and hit that thumbs up button - as well as that subscribe bell, and we’ll be seeing
you in the next one.
As per usual, I’ve been your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch - you’ve been
watching Life’s Biggest Questions, and until next time, you take it easy.