Did you know that until recently, no one required the airlines to test the water coming from bathroom sink faucets or any other faucets on their planes?
Did you also know that the United States Environmental Protection Agency tested water on planes and found that water coming out from the faucets in the bathroom sinks, and other places, on some airplanes contained coliform bacteria which sometimes indicate the presence of disease-causing germs?
The agency tested water from 327 planes, of which 15 percent tested positive for coliform. The agency said about 20 percent of the water tested didn’t show any amount of chlorine — an indication it had not been treated. ( source )
At this point you probably want to know why no one did anything about the problem — 5 years ago. With no applicable laws on the books governing the safety and purity of potable water on planes, public health officials had nothing to enforce.
All that has come a stop, though, with the creation of new rules which will govern how often airlines must test the purity of their onboard water. Frequency of testing will most likely vary with each airline as each airline goes through potable water at different rates and dumps/purges its planes’ potable water tanks at different intervals.
“This rule is a significant step forward in protecting people’s health when they travel,” said Peter Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “EPA has taken this step to make sure the public has drinking water that meets standards, both in the air and on the ground.” ( source )
Portable Water Test Kits for Travel:
Ever travel to a new place and wonder, “Is the water ‘safe’ to drink?” Several contributors to the Water Testing Blog have worked in sales and have spent many a night in hotels across the world so we already know the answer to that question: “Yes.”
While no reasonably priced, travel-sized water test kit will guarantee the safety of your drinking water, don’t you think you owe it to yourself to at least test for a few of the basics like chlorine, lead, other metals, and bacteria?
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