In France, the quality of the‘water The tap is regularly checked by the regional health agencies (ARS). Each year, 310,000 samples are taken in the field and the samples collected undergo nearly 800 different tests (source: http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr).
But researchers at Lunch University (in Sweden) have just revealed that in reality tap water is not as “clean” as you think. After studying (themselves) samples taken directly from the pipes, they came to the conclusion that the tap water contained about 80,000 bacteria per milliliter. Yes, you read that right.
Lots of unknown bacteria
More surprisingly: if scientists have managed to classify most of these microorganisms in the usual large “biological families”, some remain totally unknown – therefore unclassifiable. “An entire ecosystem has revealed itself to us: it’s unheard of,” explains Catherine Paul, the study’s main author.
Rest assured: researchers believe that these bacteria, although they are very (very) numerous, do not affect the quality of the water and cannot cause health problems. They mainly come from the walls of pipelines and residues in filtration systems. Better, some could even boost our immune system : “We have a lot of ‘good’ microbes in the digestive system which maintain the intestinal flora and a lot could come from there”.
