BootsnAll Travel Community

hey guys!
this is my firt post on bootsnall...so i just wanted to say hi! i'm in the process of preparing for my rtw, i'm gettin ready to go!

i've always wondered...
if you can't drink the water in some cities/countries, how do you brush your teeth and not get sick?

just one of those things that popped in my head as i browsed the aisles of REI

Hey. I keep a bottle of water with me at all times. Brush with straight toothpaste and then use a little bottled water to rinse. Check the plastic tabs though on your water bc sometimes they aren't sealed and you get a bottle of tap water.

PhotoChick

I lived in Mexico last summer and this issue came up. Like the other poster said use bottled water. Keep a bottle in the bathroom, or with your bathroom stuff, and get into habit of using it to brush teeth, to wet the brush, rinse your mouth, rinse the brush. This may seem silly, but start doing this a week or so before your trip. You'll be thankful later. Also, be careful of shower water, I tend to get water in my mouth when I shower sometimes.

I was dumb and wasn't as careful as I should have been last summer, and got very sick. =/

thanks guys!

hopefully i don't forget to keep a bottle nearby always. i guess it'll be my new best friend...but i tend to get water in my mouth when i shower too, so thanks for the warning

woohoo...my last day of work is tomorrow...! countdown time is starting.

Woo Hoo!

Enjoy your trip. =)

Look, unless we're talking about a country where the water is lethally infected, you can hardly have a problem by simply brushing your teeth. Brushing your teeth does not involve swallowing the water - yes you will have some residue in your mouth, but it's not enough to cause you problems. Water problems usually come up from consuming regular quantities of water with different microorganisms that you'd have in your country. (water at home is equally dirty in most cases, you are just used to it)

I didn't have any problem brushing my teeth with tap water in Borneo, Mexico, Guatemala. In Egypt I had heard the water is really bad so I used bottled water. In London I though it'd be ok, but in the first few days I had pains in the stomach. Friends from London had the same problem when they came to Athens.

Right on Nikos.
I smiled when i read the post.
Don't swallow when showering or brushing teeth.
The tiny residue can't hurt u unless u'r in Tunis or someplace.
All EU, most of Asia is safe enuf to just brush ur teeth.
Play it by ear, a bit of common sense will tell u. If it smells or looks funny i'd go without a shower.!!

Have campervan, will travel.

just my 2 cents about eating and drinking local foods and water...

My biologist friend gave me the low down on how bacteria collects in your stomach lining based on the food and drink you are consuming in a particular area. When you go to an area where different bacterias are present in food and water, then you will get sick as the bacteria in your stomach lining does not recognize the bacteria present in the food/water. Lukcily, most human bodies are resiliant and prone to survival and will dispose of previous stomach lining bacteria and replace them with "local" bacteria so that you can eat and drink the new stuff without any sickness--this process, I am told, takes around 2 weeks. (Of course, this is the dumbed down version of her very scientific explanation that used words that I had never heard cause I'm a big science dum dum)

So, what's the point of this great bacteria story? If you are planning on staying in one area for a while (like a month or two), you might want to consider drinking and eating local water and food (given that it's contaminated with only local bacteria and not nuclear waste or something like that) and just adjusting to their bacteria.

In America, there are Federal standards for types and levels of bacteria that are allowed in food and water, so you can pretty much go anywhere in the US and not get traveler's belly for that reason. Our standards are so high that, while they may keep us living longer, they kind of isolate us from the rest of the world because our immune systems weaken.

I assume that most major European countries have Federal standards that are followed as well. In other, poorer countries, while national standards might exist in theory, there may be no infrastructure to implement these standards on a national, or often local level. So in addition to having stronger bacteria content in their eats and drinks, this bacteria might change from town to town or water system to water system. So it might not be possible to say that you could "drink the water in Indonesia", but perhaps only in one small area in Indonesia.

So, there's everything that I've ever known about that subject. phew

cs

... and I might add that in Western countries the standards are such that the water is over-chlorized, in an attempt to kill almost anything in it - resulting not only to the weakening of our immune systems, but also to risks of cancer induced by the unnaturally high chlorium content of the water.

I just want to say that the tap water in johannesburg was really amazing. Some of the best water in the world. they have a really good water system there.

Despite what the rest of the world may think, New York City tap is great too.

In a blind taste test of 2 popular bottled waters and NYC tap water, people ended up preferring the tap!

e.

http://www.theglobaltrip.com

I lived in NYC two years & have to agree. The tap water is great and comes out cold. Ice water in the winter.

a few things:
1) yes, nyc tap water may be the best anywhere. shocking.
2) i read that most US cities were moving away from chlorine treatment, mainly because tanks of chlorine are a perfect terrorist target. nice to know that shit's been in our "safe" water.
3) menudio, thanks for the very clear explanation of what's goin on in our tummies.
one caveat though: there are still diseases in water sometimes that make you sick, even if you're used to normal bacteria. poor people all over the world get sick and sometimes even die from these things. the reason they get really, really sick and die is because they are poor: malnourishment and the lack of alternative drinking water (so they keep drinking the water that's making them sick).
i would suggest that anytime you're traveling in the rainy season, take extra precautions, because this is when all sorts of shit (literally) gets washed into the water. i say this not as an expert, but as someone who went months drinking local water without problems then, in rainy season south asia, got both hep A and giardia within 3 weeks of each other!
neither was catastrophic, but neither was fun, either.

I just thought I would contribute some knowledge gleaned from Wastewater Treatment class. I havent tried NYC tap water, but I know that it is not chlorinated. I forget alot (day-dreaming, sleeping or just plain skipping that class), but basically they protect the sourcewater and pipes, so they dont have to put a chlorine residual in the water.

giardia doesnt sound fun... but Giardia Llamblia was always the most fun to say. Llamblia just rolls off your tongue. oh gods, i am a big nerd.

-helga

"Live hard, love hard, play hard, fight hard, and die hard."
from Living Life the Viking Way