For context, I live in Hong Kong where most people drink tap water after boiling first. Some may install water filter but may still boil the water. Very few drink bottle water unless they're outside and too lazy to bring their own bottles.
Now, I'm researching whether I can drink tap water in Iceland (I'm going there in August), and while it looks like the answer is affirmative, almost no web article mention whether I need to boil the water first. People in Japan (a country I've visited a few times) also seems to be used to drink tap water directly without boiling.
The further I searched, the more it seems to me that in developed countries (like US, Canada and the above examples), tap water is safe to drink directly. Is that true? Do you drink tap water without boiling?
It sounds like a stupid question but I just can't believe what I saw. I think I experienced a cultural shock.
Edit: wow, thanks so much for the responses and sorry if I didnt reply to each one of you but I'll upvote as much as as I can. Never thought so many would reply and Lemmy is a really great community.
2nd Edit: So in conclusion, people from everywhere basically just drink water straight out of tap. And to my surprise, I checked the Water Supplies Department website and notice it asserts that tap water in Hong Kong is potable, like many well-developed countries and regions.
However, as the majority of Hong Kong people are living in high-rise buildings, a small amount of residual chlorine is maintained in the water to keep it free from bacterial infection during its journey in the distribution system. Therefore it is recommended to boil the water so that chlorine dissipates.
So, in short, I actually do not need to boil the water unless I hate chlorine smell and taste. But I guess I'll just continue this old habit/tradition as there's no harm in doing so.
In the UK they had separate taps for hot and cold because the cold was safe to drink and the hot was not.
Wait, is hot water drinkable? I'm Canadian, but my dad is British and taught me never to drink hot water from the tap. I won't even use it for cooking.
I've always figured its because its sitting around in an old tank for god knows how long, and cold water comes straight from the source.
That’s true in older British homes, but it’s fine to drink hot water in Canada.
British houses even have the hot and cold separated in different taps, but as you know Canadian taps are mixed
Older boilers had toxic metals in the construction.
It’s not as much of an issue now modern water heaters are typically safe, but some older builds may still have an outdated boiler.
A brit I knew was was appalled to find out in the US mixed the hot and cold in the same tap. He was disgusted and figured that made even the cold un drinkable. With US plumbing the hot is mostly safe, just the fact that hot water may leach more minerals from the pipes, or your old water heater might be gunked up. Whereas, in the uk they were actually doing something really bad with the hot, so it had to be stricktly kept separate.
It's not a huge issue these days as far as I know. You will see some old plumbing systems have signs next to the tap saying 'not drinking water' but I can't remember the last time I saw one like that.
It's not really bad, it's just designed to store the hot water for longer using less energy. The side effect of that was that it could become contaminated. Not sure why you would want to drink from the hot tap anyway?
I was told contaminated hot meant that you couldn’t have a single tap to mix the two safely. That makes washing your hands unpleasant as you can’t adjust the temperature.
Yes that is right, that's why we have separate taps and yes it does suck sometimes
Why wouldn't the hot water be safe to drink?
UK here, ours was like this when I was little. Basically it's because the hot water came from a tank up in the attic that could get all kinds of gross things in it (usually dead birds in ours for some reason).
It's not a concern with more modern plumbing systems but a lot of people grew up knowing never to drink hot water from the tap.
To make or keep it hot, hot water is stored in a tank. Your heating system, depending on your setup and specific settings, constantly keeps it at the desired temperature. While this temp should be set at somewhere above 60°C, to hinder Legionella pneumophilia from growing, it's possible that the concentration of heavy metals (stemming from your heating system) might reach unwanted concentrations, due to the longer time in there. And depending on the situation (age, corrosion, etc.) of your setup, of course.
So to put it short - while the hot side won't kill you, stay with the cold because it's usually better for your health.
Something special about the way they did the plumbing, I don’t remember
The hot water will be coming from a tank where it might have been for a while. All cold water taps are drawing straight from the mains and so are considered safe to drink.