Quality of drinking water varies significantly by airline (foodmedcenter.org)

Worth a listen to this podcast: https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/wait-should-i-not-be-drinking-...

This is bad advice:

« Do not wash your hands in the bathroom; use alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol instead. »

Alcohol only kills some pathogens. Notably, it does not kill norovirus. If the water has coliform bacteria, you should wash your hands with soap and water and then use the alcohol hand sanitizer

Before reading TFA, I'd like to bet $50 that if the article includes the rankings, Delta will be at the very top and American Airlines will be at the very bottom

(2023)

tl;dr some airlines have poo in their water. Best advice is to treat any water not coming out of a bottle on an airplane as non potable. Wash your hands with it and that’s about it and even then a good hand sanitizer afterwards is a good idea.

This doesn’t make sense. One of the airlines with a grade C uses cans of water on board, yet the article’s advice is to only drink bottled water?

If you are flying Southwest and need a drink, ask for a can of water.

"Do not drink coffee or tea onboard." - Why not? Most common pathogens are killed by 140F water, and tea and coffee extracts disrupt some pathogens. As long as the water has been kept hot for a while, or approaches boiling temp, you're good

An inlaw who worked as a stewardess (back when they were called "stewardesses") on international routes for many years always carried her own water.

I'm sure they're correct about a lot of airline water being nasty - no argument there, but the organization/website sounds like it has a mission that is probably at least partly pseudoscience adjacent:

"Mission Center For Food As Medicine & Longevity is a nonprofit organization working to bridge the gap between traditional medicine and the use of food as medicine in the prevention, treatment, and management of disease while also increasing access to these treatments, thereby creating a more equitable food system that will improve health outcomes."

It might not be, but I'm skeptical of most articles coming from organizations sounding like that. Eating healthy and nutritious food is incredibly important and a good diet can prevent certain diseases. Maybe that is all they're trying to say. However, I come across a lot of people who just think you can avoid medicine all together and just eat certain foods and herbs.

Way more important than not drinking the water is not breathing the air.

Please wear an N95 when you lock yourself in a tiny steel tube with hundreds of others. If not for your safety, do it for others.

How are these scores so vastly different between airlines?

I understand the water sources may vary (by airport? not sure?), but if the planes are largely manufactured by Boeing and Airbus, how are the onboard water sources / distribution systems getting contaminated?

Delta being a 5.00 means they're doing something different, but what is it & what control do they have over the plumbing, water systems, etc.?

  > The “Shame on You” Award goes to the EPA for weak enforcement.

I had a laugh at this. Honestly, I'd love a world that the right wing is seeking with low regulation. The only problem is that these companies won't behave without regulatory bodies. So yeah, in a sense I agree with them that they are a waste of tax payer money. But the waste is from private industry. They're so unreliable we need a third party constantly checking them. The inefficiency of this third party is definitely an issue but the whole reason for their existence is that they willingly misbehave.

It makes me wonder, how much money is actually wasted by this? It also feels like violations should be the primary funding for these agencies. (Probably creates perverse incentives though)

Doesn't it differ by aircraft too? I believe the 787 dreamliner has a UV water purification system for potable water.

What water are they testing? The drinking water on Alaska, for example, is Boxed Water. I'm not sure if that's what they use for coffee and tea, but they didn't actually mention testing the coffee or tea (that I could find).

I'm a little surprised United is so bad in this. IME I've only seen fresh, sealed water bottles, so it must be the environment? But I can't think of a single actual factor that seemed different on United vs. Delta

These people should just live in a plastic bubble.

I'd like to see a similar test for airports. I always fill up my water bottle in the airport (at one of the water fountains for filling bottles) before boarding.

Don't airlines serve bottled water? Alaska has Boxed Water (same as bottled water).

I'll take it, taking a bottled beer from the stewardess is still the safest option.

People get incredible creative about identifying problems they need to solve if they have too much free time :D