Red Tap Water

May I refer you to;

BS 7592:1992
Methods for sampling for legionella organisms in water and related materials

BSI, 1992.
ISBN 0580211010;


What are the symptoms?

7. The symptoms of Legionnaires' disease are similar to those of flu:

* high temperature, fever and chills;
* cough;
* muscle pains; and
* headache.

In a bad case there may also be pneumonia, and occasionally diarrhoea and signs of mental confusion.

Where does it come from?

8. Legionella bacteria are widespread in nature, mainly living in natural water systems, eg rivers and ponds. However, the conditions are rarely right for people to catch the disease from these sources.

9. Outbreaks of the illness occur from exposure to legionella growing in purpose-built systems where the water is maintained at a temperature high enough to encourage growth, eg cooling towers, evaporative condensers, spa pools, and hot water systems used in all sorts of premises (work and domestic).

10. Most community outbreaks in the UK have been linked to installations such as cooling towers, which can spread droplets of water over a wide area. These are found as part of air-conditioning and industrial cooling systems.

11. Fatal cases of Legionnaires' disease have also been associated with spa pool demonstrations.

What measures are there to control legionella?

12. To prevent exposure to the legionella bacteria, you as a dutyholder must comply with legislation that requires you to manage, maintain and treat water systems in your premises properly. This will include, but not be limited to, appropriate water treatment and cleaning regimes.

13. Remember, legionella can grow in any workplace if the conditions are right - you do not have to work with microbiological agents, eg in a laboratory, for exposure to occur. If you are responsible for any of the water systems described in HSE's Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) and Guidance "Legionnaires' disease: The control of legionella bacteria in water systems" (**) you will need to assess the risk of employees and others in the workplace contracting Legionnaires' disease.

14. Copies of ** can be purchased from HSE Books. HSE also publishes several free leaflets and a video explaining legal duties and the control of legionella in cooling systems and hot/cold water systems available from HSE Books.

15. Separate regulations (The Notification of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations 1992) require the notification of cooling towers to your Local Authority (contact them directly for further information).
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Have someone whose competent to check the supply, it could just be below acceptable "clean" levels.
 
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platypus said:
Eeegads man, that is just disgusting. I would not bathe/shower in a bath like that.
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It's not dirt. Like I said, I wash it down regulalry, and chemicals just don't make a difference. I don't actually use the bath though because of it.
 
Not wanting to push this down a medical thread route but one other thing that might be worth a go is getting a blood test, surely if there was iron in the water then you'd have an increased amount of iron in your blood stream?

The other thing you could do is buy a permanent drinking water filter for the sink, the small taps with the filter under the sink. Got one here, and the amount of crap it takes out of the water is quite astounding. Well apart from fluoride (tin foil hat on). :D
 
randal24 said:
Not wanting to push this down a medical thread route but one other thing that might be worth a go is getting a blood test, surely if there was iron in the water then you'd have an increased amount of iron in your blood stream?

The other thing you could do is buy a permanent drinking water filter for the sink, the small taps with the filter under the sink. Got one here, and the amount of crap it takes out of the water is quite astounding. Well apart from fluoride (tin foil hat on). :D
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I've had loads of blood tests, and iron levels are coming up as normal, although I was borderline anaemic before.

Where do you get a permanent filter, and how much do they cost?
 
Blimey Vixen are you mad !? , that's clearly not good, STOP drinking that water right now and (I wouldn't usually recommend this as there awful for the environment, but in your case its a health issue) buy bottled water for now !!!!!!!!

Iv not seen concentrations of what potentially look like iron since I was in the labs at my uni (ocean science graduate), I can tell you that level of water contamination will be a health risk, especially at 4L a day for 4 years.

STOP drinking it, START doing something about it
 
We've got something like this:

http://www.homecreations.co.uk/acatalog/Tapworks_Easychange_Water_Filter_Tap.htm

The filter lasts a year, and costs £16 to replace.

Just reading more about specifically removing iron, looks like I may be wrong and you might actually need something different like a Greensand or KDF 55 filter:

http://www.platoh2o.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=45

Or go reverse osmosis, which is the daddy afaik. That will get rid of Fluoride, and about £500 from your wallet for the install too...
 
Well, my parents who own the property are finally listening to me and are going to come and take a look at the weekend before deciding what to do. In the mean time, I've been told to buy some bottled water and my mum will pay for it. I don't quite know how I'll manage to store it though because my flat is small and I will need to get a lot at a time for the amount I drink :(.
 
Haven't you got any family that will buy you a months supply of bottled water to see if you improve? It won't cost that much in bulk and I know I'd certainly be willing to spend that if any of my family had been off ill for a year.

EDIT: lol, you beat me to it
 
LOL

Sorry for laughing, but I cant believe its been like that for 4 years and you actually carried on DRINKING the water?
 
Vixen said:
Well, my parents who own the property are finally listening to me and are going to come and take a look at the weekend before deciding what to do. In the mean time, I've been told to buy some bottled water and my mum will pay for it. I don't quite know how I'll manage to store it though because my flat is small and I will need to get a lot at a time for the amount I drink :(.
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Get a 10 litre cask:)
 
fish said:
When i went to Edinburgh at Christmas last year the first thing i noticed about the place was that all of the water had a reddy brown tinge to it. I spoke to my Boss who is a Scot, about it and he said it was the same when he lived up there years ago.
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Mine is crystal clear?

Has been for years. :confused:
 
Vixen, where do you live in Edinburgh? A lot of the older places have extremely old pipe work. I used to live in New Town (and for those that don't know Edinburgh, its actually an old part of the city...well old-ish!) and our flat was one of the old ones and we had some trouble with the pipes. That looks like rust to me and you def need to get it checked out!
 
the problem is clear you live in scotland and they dont have water in the taps they have IRN-BRU !
 
fish said:
When i went to Edinburgh at Christmas last year the first thing i noticed about the place was that all of the water had a reddy brown tinge to it. I spoke to my Boss who is a Scot, about it and he said it was the same when he lived up there years ago.
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Ye you dont really get that in any citys now. Further up north there is few places that have coloured water, this is due to peat that the water runs through .
 
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