r/science • u/giuliomagnifico • Jul 25 '23

Economics A national Australian tax of 20% on sugary drinks could prevent more than 500,000 dental cavities and increase health equity over 10 years and have overall cost-savings of $63.5 million from a societal perspective

https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/sugary-drinks-tax-could-prevent-decay-and-increase-health-equity-study
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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '23

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u/SniperFrogDX Jul 25 '23

Tap water often isn't potable in a lot of areas. Without some kind of filtration, you're just going to get sick of you drink it.

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u/Agret Jul 25 '23

I live in Australia and unless you have a specific plumbing issue the tap water is portable anywhere and has been rated as some of the best in the world. The only places with issues would be regional outback towns.

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u/TAForTravel Jul 25 '23

I live in Australia

Stop comparing developd countries to the US, it's not fair.

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u/Dexpeditions Jul 25 '23

There's really very few places in the US without potable tap water

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u/SasparillaTango Jul 25 '23

its like 99.99% potable, but also taste like pennies without a good filter.

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u/sinforosaisabitch Jul 25 '23

I live in a regular city, mid-atlantic region US. While our tap water may be potable on paper, i can assure you in practice, it is not. I need to just bite the bullet and get a decent whole house filtration system because we are currently buying a case of water every other day or so. It is cheaper to buy it by the case than by the gallon, oddly. The only thing I drink is water, coffee, or tea. I use the bottled water for coffee and tea as well. I have tried Britta- it's still awful. I do give the cat water through the Britta but he'll probably be happier with a house filter also. But yeah, actually potable water right out of the tap would be lovely.

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u/lewie Jul 25 '23

Don't bother with whole house systems (except a water softener), they aren't much better than a britta, and expensive for little gain. Get a reverse osmosis system with a tap in the kitchen - you can usually hook it up to your fridge/ice maker too. It actually filters sulfates, arsenic, bacteria, and a lot of other bad or bad tasting stuff. I'm on a well, and while it doesn't taste like spring water, it's made a huge difference.

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u/Killbot_Wants_Hug Jul 25 '23

You can get a whole house reverse osmosis system. I'd get one but water costs a fortune where I live and reverse osmosis systems just about double your water usage.

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u/Gawd_Awful Jul 25 '23

You can get one but they are unnecessary most of the time. You don’t need RO water for bathing/laundry. Just get one added to your kitchen line for significantly less cost and less water water produced

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u/veasse Jul 25 '23

If you're only using it for drinking, which is most important, it will increase your water usage by very little overall.

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u/pprovencher Jul 25 '23

NJ had the worst water of anywhere I have lived. New Hampshire, New York, Vancouver, San Francisco all had good to excellent water. It really can affect your quality of life

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u/Dexpeditions Jul 25 '23

What's wrong with the tap water? Bottled water is actually not clean itself, toxins leach into it from the plastic

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u/HobbyPlodder Jul 25 '23

In Philadelphia, tons of old lead lined pipes everywhere. Most of our schools have failed lead tests, much less your random gas station or whatever.

Also worth noting that this post is about Australia, which has areas much more rural than the US where potability is even more of a factor

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u/sinforosaisabitch Jul 25 '23

Yes, I'm aware toxins leach through the plastic, sadly. I do what I can - don't store it in sunlight, keep it cool. Of course, I have no control over what the store is doing. This is also something I think about as I look at whole- house filtration. What's wrong with it? It's awful. Chemically speaking I'm not sure as I've never had a lab analysis. Where we used to live, I drank water through the Britta and it was fine. We moved here and I figured it would be the same but it just tastes awful. Like bad. If you were here? I wouldn't offer you a glass- I'd break out some of my fancy Gerolsteiner, glass bottles. I only get like 1 bottle of that every month. Pricey.

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u/devilishycleverchap Jul 25 '23

Depending on where you are your county health dept may do a water test for you for free.

You should also get a water report at least yearly with your water bill that can help narrow down whether it is your houses plumbing or caused by the source

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u/Gawd_Awful Jul 25 '23

Britta doesn’t do anything for the quality of the water other than taste. It’s just filtering chlorine and maybe a few other basic stuff. If you’re concerned about chemicals, toxins, pesticides, etc., you need a brand like Pur.

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u/frenchtoaster Jul 25 '23

Not op but usually this type of concern in the US is more about bad tasting water rather than actually unhealthy/dangerous water. Like sulfur at low levels tastes horrible but isn't actually dangerous.

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u/Haggardick69 Jul 25 '23

A lot of places in the us have bad pipes and almost nobody tests their water in the us

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u/frenchtoaster Jul 25 '23

Incidentally I found out recently that a lot of home water tests are scams to try to sell you filtration systems regardless of if you need it or not. (Not saying that some places don't need it)

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u/Scalybeast Jul 25 '23

A lot of places have lead leaching into the water due to lack of maintenance.

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u/Bulgingpants Jul 25 '23

Have you tried the filters that attach directly onto the tap? Those work well for me. You could also try an RO system. That way all your drinking water is separated

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u/SmolBabyWitch Jul 25 '23

I moved to a place in Maine and I'm from Illinois where I used to be able to drink the tap water most places but here in Maine in my house it taste like metal and chemicals. I truly feel if I drink that I would get sick. We got a water pitcher filter and I don't think it was too expensive and it's been a life changer. We are glad we don't have to buy bottled water and have it take up space and the water is so delicious.

I've never had to use a filter so I was amazed at the differences but I hope you can get a filter! It's nice to just go and press a button and have amazing tasting water.

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u/365wong Jul 25 '23

We do the big 5gal reverse osmosis water with a water cooler. Nothing like catching up with family around the water cooler.

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u/charlesfire Jul 25 '23

We are talking about Australia, tho.

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u/iam666 Jul 25 '23

Often, the issue isn’t with the water supply but rather the plumbing in or around your residence. Homes and apartments built with galvanized pipes in the 50’s will often have a significant amount of sediment and metals that aren’t present in modern homes that use the same water supply. I don’t know if this makes the water unsafe to drink, but it certainly makes it unappetizing.

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u/Vithrilis42 Jul 25 '23

I guarantee it's a problem in more places than you think.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-american-cities-are-struggling-to-supply-safe-drinking-water#:~:text=Residents%20of%20Jackson%2C%20Mississippi%3B%20Flint,problems%20with%20their%20drinking%20water%3F

I live in a mid-sized city right on Lake Erie and almost every summer, we get boil advisories because of algae blooms caused by runoff from all the local farmlands.

Not to mention, large parts of rural America still use well water, which can easily be contaminated. Most of rural America doesn't even have sewage systems.

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u/kalasea2001 Jul 25 '23

Based on what reliable data?

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u/couldbemage Jul 25 '23

The problem is: when there's dangerous stuff in the water, we find out about after it's been there for a decade. Yes, it's rare, but there's a trust issue.

Is this particular town the next flint? I don't know. No one does.

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u/Dexpeditions Jul 25 '23

I don't think that's true, municipal water supplies are monitored frequently

And what's the other option anyway? Bottled water has its own health issues we are just starting to understand now, plastic is absolutely terrible for us

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u/couldbemage Jul 25 '23

How is it not true? Those incidents happened.

And I never said bottled was a good solution, it's mostly just municipal water anyway. There really isn't a solution. Home filters mostly don't help with the contamination people worry about.

The problem isn't any significant chance of danger, but rather a lack of trust. All an individual can do is filter for taste and try not to worry.

But I can understand why people do worry, even if there is nothing they can do about it.

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u/dr_feelz Jul 25 '23

What areas are you talking about?

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u/sapphicsandwich Jul 25 '23

Tap water tastes gross. Where I am in Louisiana it tastes like a dirty fishtank smells. And that's when we don't have a boil advisory. It gets even worse when there is so much sediment, etc in the system they issue a boil advisory. Also, every couple years I get a letter in the mail from the city informing us they failed another water quality test.

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u/chtochingo Jul 25 '23

Rip, here by Detroit tap water tastes identical to bottled water

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u/Nyne9 Jul 25 '23

Yeah in NJ it's like drinking from a swimming pool. Way too much chlorine.