Tap Water Safety and Your Fertility

Drinking bottled water or filtering tap water has been regarded by many as something only paranoid health freaks or rich and famous do out of fashion whims. It’s in the same category as eating organic food. Many people are more than happy when the news reports ‘organic food is no healthier than non organic food’ or ‘tap water is healthy and safe to drink’. In my part of the world – Switzerland – you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t believe that tap water is healthy. There is an urban myth that the water comes from the Alps and that it’s rich in calcium. This is true for the mineral water which is naturally filtered for centuries before it ends up in your bottle. The tap water is actually rich in rock sediment and sand which is why there is a high prevalence of kidney stones. My father who is a radiologist won’t go near the tap water out of fear of developing painful kidney stones which he sees in many of the patients he treats. If you boil tap water in your tea-kettle in Switzerland, in a couple of weeks the heater will be completely calcified, looking like a fossil.