Drinking Rainwater Said to be Safe

Researchers from Melbourne's Monash University have revealed that rainwater is safe for drinking. In a first of its kind study the Aussie researchers looked at 300 homes that used rainwater collection to shore up their water supply.

The researchers gave all families a filter and told them that this would clean out gastroenteritis causing organisms from the water. Half the filters did not have this feature. The researchers found that the number of gastroenteritis cases reported by the two groups were almost same meaning that rainwater was safe for drinking.

"People who drank untreated rainwater displayed no measurable increase in illness compared to those that consumed the filtered rainwater," researcher Karin Leder, head of the infectious diseases unit at Monash University's department of epidemiology, said in a statement. "This study confirms there is a low risk of illness ... Expanded use of rainwater for many household purposes can be considered and in current times of drought, we want to encourage people to use rainwater as a resource."

The study is good news for people at large especially as bottled water is causing multiple health concerns.


Source-Medindia
RAS