Every glass of tap water you drink has been drank by ten people before you
Hope you’re ready to receive some grim news - because every glass of water you knock back has most likely been pee ten times over. Lovely.
Yep, as you probably already understand all the water on Earth is the same water that’s been around for the last five billion years.
So, it stands to reason that the water you’ve been supping has already made its way through all manner of other creatures - including humans - in that time.
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Someone over at economics.com crunched the numbers to determine just how many people have drank the same water you have using this is interesting - if not slightly complicated - equation: Pee ratio = (total water peed)/(total water) = (total vertebrate biomass ever lived* pee rate)/ (total water) = (average biomass vertebrates * pee rate per year * years of vertebrates) / (total water).
Which, according to the bloke who wrote the piece, means 'the atoms in your average water molecule will have been concentrated urine some 10 times already’ - and that is a ‘conservative estimate’.
The author says that a ‘more likely’ scenario, would actually equate to ‘water having been piss around 25 times already’.
If you want even more information, he goes on to explain that ‘water has been fish piss some 10 times, mammal piss around twice, and other forms of piss 13 times. Only a trickle has been monkey piss’. Good to know, I guess.
Of course, all water coming out of taps in the UK is thoroughly treated and is perfectly safe and healthy to drink - but, I won’t lie this kind of has ruined brews for me a bit.
However, if you live in an older house you might be best to avoid drinking water that comes from your bathroom tap.
According to research done by Scottish Water, in partnership with WaterSafe, the safety of the water you drink could depend on the room which you drink it in, and even how old your house is.
The first problem with drinking water from the bathroom tap is that, in older homes, it will be less fresh than the water in the kitchen because the water will have been stored in a tank at the top of the house.
But a bigger danger exists for bathroom tap water guzzlers. In UK properties before 1970, lead was commonly used to make the piping connected to bathroom taps. Over time, this poisonous metal dissolves into the water supply, potentially causing a range of grizzly symptoms.
So in future it’s probably best to stick to your kitchen tap for your recycled piss… erm sorry, I mean water.
Topics: Weird, Food And Drink
Claire Reid