The shelf life of water has been debated for a long time. Today let us look at some facts and see for how long the stored water can be used. Apart from this, know what are the risks of drinking ‘expired’ water.
Water and expired! Yes, you read it right. For example, expiry date (date of spoilage) is written on food items. Similarly, there is an expiry date on sealed bottles also. So does water also expire?
Question: Can the water bottles that we often buy from shops, railway stations and bus stops while traveling by train, bus or car go bad?
Answer- According to a report by Live Science, water in its original form does not spoil. Expiry date i.e. spoilage is related to the plastic of the sealed bottle. Actually, plastic starts dissolving after some time.Therefore, the expiry date written on a sealed bottle is not for water but for plastic bottles.
Dr. Balkrishna Srivastava says that by drinking water from plastic bottles with expiry date, toxins enter your body. It mixes in the blood and has a bad effect on all the organs. It acts slowly like poison.
Question- If you accidentally drink expired water 1-2 times, what will be its effect on the body?
Answer- There will not be much loss. In such a situation, less amount of toxins, plastics and chemicals will reach your body, but if you drink such water continuously or several times, you may have to face more health related problems.
Question- Which chemicals come out of plastic bottles and start dissolving in water?
Answer- Plastic is known to release BPA (bisphenol) and other chemicals. Which dissolve in water and spoil it.
Question: How many days is the expiry date on a sealed bottle?
Answer- The expiry date is written for about 2 years from the manufacturing date.
Question- Can tap water also get spoiled?
Answer- Generally we store tap water at these three-four places…
- tank
- pot
- steel utensils
- RO or water purifier
According to a research by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), one can drink such water for 6 months.
Nowadays RO is used in many homes. According to the companies selling it, it works to clean the water by filtering it. Now the question arises that when should the water stored in it be changed?
Question: After how many days should the water in the water purifier be changed?
Answer: If the water stored in the water purifier is not being used daily, then it should be changed after 3 months, because dirt gets accumulated in its filter. Due to which even when the water comes after filtration, there may be a possibility of dirt in it.
The purity of RO water is checked by Total dissolved solids (TDS). Therefore, you should also keep checking TDS from time to time. WHO says that the amount of TDS per liter of water should be less than 300 mg. If one liter of water has 300 mg to 600 mg TDS then it is considered safe to drink.
Also take a look at the report – In the year 2019, National Environment Engineering Research Institute (Neeri), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and IIT-Delhi had prepared a report on the use of RO and submitted it to NGT (National Green Tribunal). according to…
When water is filtered from RO Plant, industrial RO plant or commercial ro plant, the essential minerals present in the water are also completely removed.
Bad effects of RO are being seen in foreign countries. People there have started complaining of calcium and magnesium deficiency.
Whenever we talk about water, PH value is also talked about. So let’s understand this too
Question- What does PH mean? What should be the PH of clean and pure water?
Answer- PH means Potential of Hydrogen i.e. power of hydrogen. Hydrogen molecules in any substance determine its acidic and alkaline trend.Understand it this way – if the pH of a solution or product is 1 or 2, then it is acidic and if the pH is 13 or 14, then it is alkaline. If pH is 7 then it is neutral.
PH of pure water is 7. It is sweet. The PH of water is considered to be 6.5 to 8. In this, water with PH less than 7 is considered hard water. Such water is also called ASICTIC WATER. If we test such water, traces of iron, copper, light and zinc are found in it.
Question-Is river water fit for drinking or not?
Answer- In the year 2015, a survey by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) came out. According to which, it is not safe to drink river water without treatment, because there is a lot of filth around the river. Dirty water from many factories also ends up in it.
Survey was done on these rivers – Yamuna of Delhi, Mahanadi of Cuttack, Brahmaputra of Assam, Narmada of Jabalpur, Tapti of Surat, Ganga of Varanasi and Krishna of Vijayawada.
Also know – A law was made in New Jersey in the year 1987, according to which, food and water companies were required to put an expiry date of less than two years on all their products. Not only this, even if the water actually does not expire, expiry date will have to be put on the water bottles. Later some changes were made in this law.
