Aircraft tap water found to be contaminated

[Eboy]

From the Wall Street Journal, November 1 2002:

"For years, fliers have worried about everything from stuffy cabin air to bad meals. But what about the water? While airlines insist it's safe to drink, some little-noticed studies from Japan to the Netherlands have turned up some unfriendly bacteria in the tank water, including E. coli and the germ that causes Legionnaire's disease. U.S. researchers have tested it, too, with mixed results that suggest you don't know what you're drinking.

But we do -- because we tested it. We packed sample vials and took to the skies, hopping on 14 different flights everywhere from Atlanta to Sydney, Australia. On each, we collected water from the galley and lavatory taps, sealed them up and sent them to a lab for analysis. The results of our water-quality snapshot: a long list of microscopic life you don't want to drink, from Salmonella and Staphylococcus to tiny insect eggs. Worse, contamination was the rule, not the exception: Almost all of the bacteria levels were tens, sometimes hundreds, of times above U.S. government limits. "This water is not potable by any means," says Donald Hendrickson, the director of Hoosier Microbiology Laboratories in Muncie, Ind., which tested our samples."


For the gory details, here is a link to the article -- I think a paid subscription is required to view, however.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1036110025940498271,00.html?mod=travel%5Fprimary%5Fhs

[PAXboy]

I am not in the least bit surprised!!

I have noticed more carriers using bottled water for drinks, which may be a tacit acknowledgement of the problem. VS, for example, always use bottled for the rounds of water/orange and offer it without restriction.

I have never drunk from the tap in an aircraft toilet and never would - irrespective of what the sign says!!!

Happily, brandy is it's own disinfectant ... :cool:

[PaperTiger]

Ohmigawd, journos rampant again !

Except in large metropolitan areas which can afford stringent purification plants, most tap water is 'contaminated'. And mostly it won't hurt you.

A substantial percentage (estimates as high as 25%) of bottled water from the 'manufacturer' is tap water anyway.

Personally I have other things to worry me, but if you want to indulge yourselves try: http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp (and have the brandy handy !)

[bealine]

Whilst not disputing the findings, it is not unusual to find colonies of these same microscopic life forms everywhere warm and moist. In Britain, a staggering 30% of food handlers in British Restaurants and Cafeterias admitted failing to wash their hands after using the toilet......Why then, are we not all dying like flies?

The answer is that each exposure to these pests encourages our white blood cells to create antibodies to kill said microbes the instant they enter our bodies.

The classic scenario is an Airport Terminal Building - a disgusting sealed area for the rapid spread of infections. All those people, many with colds, flu, stomach bugs etc. Warm, moist air is constantly exhaled, condensing on cooler surfaces......walls, ceilings, check in desks, briefcases, clothes, doors etc etc.

A "Newbie" coming to work in the terminal frequently becomes ill during the first few months.......cold after cold, spots break out on the face and they feel tired and listless. After about three or four months, the resistance builds up and the sickness decreases - which is just as well considering BA only allows two bouts of sickness in a six month period!


As a boy, our village butcher used to kill his own sheep, pigs and cattle during the morning whilst the children were at school. In the afternoon on the way home, you would see him in the shop doorway, a flayed carcase suspended on hooks in the door frame outside, calmly working away with his knives, a smouldering Woodbine filter tip dangling from his lips whilst the flies buzzed around. Sometimes, if I took the dog out for a walk after school, he would beckon me over and feed a few scraps of offal to the dog! I cannot ever recall one case of food poisoining in our Devon village!

Unfortunately, our obsession with hygiene has, I feel, been largely responsible for lowering our resistance to microbes and I, for one, am a firm believer that "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise!"

We all eat a peck of dirt before we die!:eek:

[Rollingthunder]

Biscuit Chucker,

What carrier would that be then?

[PaperTiger]

What carrier ?
All the N. American majors, if you believe the union. The fact they were in contract negotiations at the time of this er... press release may or may not have any bearing.

http://www.uniteunion.org/ditytruth.pdf (Adobe)

[McGinty]

Going back to the Wall Street Journal article......

I have just told friend of mine (who is an Occupational Health and Safety expert) about the WSJ article on airline water, and she told me this story.

She was asked by some flight attendants on a national airline to take some swabs of the galley counters of a plane commonly used for long-haul operations. She did so, and submitted them for analysis, and they too showed unacceptable levels of bacterial contamination.

So it would appear that not only is the water on planes frequently contaminated, but that all the flat surfaces in the food serving areas may be as well.

Is anyone aware of any more systematic studies that have been done regarding the hygiene of food service areas on planes?

And which are the national regulatory authorities (if there are any) that have jurisdiction over food and water hygiene on airliners? Could it be that no government regulators are concerned with this matter?

It occurs to me that there may be a lot of passengers who may become sick from gastro-intestinal illnesses after a flight, but who may automatically imagine that it was something picked up before the flight.

Are flight crew subject to an above average numbers of tummy upsets? And if so, do they too invariably imagine that it came from a stopover rather than from the plane itself?

:confused:

[PaperTiger]

Meals, snacks etc. are all pre-packaged. They do not (or should not normally) come in contact with the countertops. Any bacteria found there is probably from the 'slop' when the finished meals are being stowed.

Any well-used public area will become dirty quite quickly. 200-odd passengers in an airliner cabin for several hours will leave an awful mess behind if a sterile yardstick is used. Cabins are cleaned, but they are not sterlized any more than a bus, train or public restroom. And they are a damn sight cleaner than many of your favourite restaurants, I'll warrant.

[Evening Star]

Of course they found contamination. Even if the contamination was not already present the sampling methodology was flawed. Without sterilising the tap there is no way of proving that the sample reflects the quality of the water in the system or chance contamination on the tap (such as from the last person to use the tap). Best way of sterilising a tap before taking a water sample is by using a naked flame. Yeah right, in the aircraft netty with a blow torch. Journalism! Does for good science what Cyril Smith did for hang gliding.

Mind, that said I am rather inclined to believe the results. I cannot see how the operating environment of aircraft could provide the integrity required for potable water storage. One of the occasions when I will only drink bottled water.

PaperTiger is almost right. All bottled water comes from the same sources as tap water. Uusually the only difference is in the disinfection process, with chlorine in the tap water providing residual protection against chance contamination. With bottled water you are relying upon the bottle seal. Enjoy!

[hptaccv]

...having disinfected airliner water systems (yes, one of the lowliest of a mechanics duties! ), I wouldn't drink it either...
Can't recall airlines ever serving water from tap, isn't it usually "sin gas/con gas"?

[Young Paul]

I was amazed to find out that water from the aircraft tanks might be drunk at all except from the boiler! It certainly ain't on my airline.

Of course, since the BP of water at a cabin altitude of 8000' is lower than 100 deg C, I guess that even boiling it might not get rid of all the nasties.

[Boss Raptor]

Watched the cabin crew at the end of a Virgin LHR-LAX flight filling the coffee makers with galley tap water...having used bottled water for the flight up to then...which had run out...

What about if the aircraft had recently flown a LHR-Lagos-LHR...the tank flushing wouldn't clear those bugs!

[Mara]

I've worked in aviation on every continent, in more countries than I care to admit to. I have seen where the water comes from that goes into "potable water tanks". Believe me, you don't even want to think about the water that comes from some of the third world countries.
I have witnessed the various methods of water tank cleansing and flushing.... if they are clensed and flushed at all. This holds as true for first world as it does for third world.
Never, never, drink the water from an aircraft water system. Makes no difference whether or not the sign says "potable". Stay away from it!