Tube water

Frage

My daughter with Cf (6 yrs old) drinks tap water in the Kindergarten as do all other children. Our physiotherapist has cautioned us not to let her drink tap water, since tap water can be contaminated with bacteria. However, the water quality in the Kindergarten is high according to drinking water standards, and we know that she never should take the first water after opening the tap and we also let the water run for some time before taking water to give her to drink. These precautions are also followed by the Kindergarten. However, the general verdict not to drink controlled drinking water was new to us. Is our physiotherapist right?

Antwort

Dear questioner,

The German quality control of drinking water ends at the tap. Although the tubing system in Germany normally contains drinking water without Pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination due to effective disinfection, the tap may be contaminated from the aerosols emanating from the sinks in which P. aeruginosa forms persistent biofilms. Especially sinks in hospitals have been shown to contain high concentrations of P. aeruginosa which may contaminate hands after hand washing or may be inhaled directly and thus are potential sources for infection of CF patients (1). Your precautions to let the water run for some time (less than a minute is enough!) is quite effective to reduce the number of sink bacteria significantly or to reduce P. aeruginosa numbers on the tap itself. Therefore I think that you are right and not your physiotherapist.

I hope that this helps,

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Gerd Döring

References

1. Döring G, Ulrich M, Müller W, Bitzer J, Schmidt-Koenig L, Münst L, Grupp H, Wolz C, Stern M, Botzenhart K. Generation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa aerosols during hand¬washing from contaminated sink drains, transmission to hands of hospital personnel, and its prevention by use of a new heating device. Zbl Hyg 1991;191:494-505.

18.05.2009