You ever wonder if you can drink that water that is falling from the sky? I mean its right there.Can’t you just take a cup a fill up, or just open your mouth up and quench your thirst?
By definition rain is “water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth. ” (Dictionary.com). We see it falling from the sky all of the time. If you live in an area that usually as more rainfall you would see it more often of course. Before the rain hits the ground it passes through the air of course. As the rain passes through it could obtain some of the things that are in our air, or just some things that are located around. What are some of these things?
Depending were a person lives there can be acid gases in the air. Acid gases are gases that come from different factories, power plants like when people are burning different fuels. When these gases are in the air, this can cause what we call acid rain. Acid rain also contains nitric and sulfuric acids.(Nat geo). These acids form when the acid gases mix with the water and the oxygen in the air. This acid rain actually effects some aquatic animals, soils, and trees.
As said before depending on where a person lives, different things can be contained in rain. The air can be polluted all the time. For example a person might not want to drink rain water when they live around a radioactive plant, or a volcano. (Chemistry about). Dust is always flying around in the air so, of course if its in the air, it is possible for it to get into the rain water. If a person is trying to collect rain water, they also have to think how they are collecting it. For example if they have a bucket and just have it on the ground, the rain is falling from some kind of building or home, that might not be a good idea. Buildings and homes have some sort of bacteria on them. For example birds, and other animals use the bathroom a lot. The animal droppings have lots of bacteria inside of the, that can cause many problems in the human body.
So can we drink rain water? Yes we can, but with caution. As said before, rain can be contaminated with so many different things, So can we make the rainwater safe for us to drink? Actually…. you can! People actually collect rainwater for themselves to you. In some states it is actually illegal to do that because the state may consider the rainwater state property. Kinda weird. Some people boil the water to try and get germs out of the water. Some people use Cisterns. Cisterns are” underground containers used for storing and containing water”(merriam- Webster). Also people use rain barrels. Usually after people store the rain water that is when they try to filter the water in order for it to become safer to drink. It is said that storing rain water helps the environment out as well, and can just be another good source of water if handled right.
So rain can contain lots of things. So do we really want to drink it? In my opinion a few drops shouldn’t really hurt you. I do think its a good idea to try and make the rainwater safer to drink, before gulping a cup down. There are a lot things in our air polluting it and making it kind of gross. We already have to breath in this air, but do we want to drink it too?
http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/rainwater-collection.html
http://chemistry.about.com/od/waterchemistry/fl/Can-You-Drink-Rain-Water.htm
http://www.clean-air-kids.org.uk/acidrain.html
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/acid-rain-overview/
http://www.rainsaucers.com/blog/2013/03/19/can-you-really-drink-rainwater-is-it-potable
http://www.harvesth2o.com/rainwater_safe.shtml#.VD7aQRb4I2w
http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/rainwater-collection.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rain
Before I read your post and did some additional research, I thought that drinking rainwater was no big deal and not that serious at all. However, now I have a completely different outlook on this topic. After reading this article and doing additional research, I became scared of even touching rainwater. I learned that, according to Anne Marie Helmenstine, “rain does pick up low levels of bacteria… dust and occasional insect parts”. That is gross. I also learned that there could be acid gases and all different types of pollutants in the rain water. This makes me terrified. I will never drink rain water again. Although you could make it safer by boiling or filtering the water, it just sounds stupid and not worth it. Why would I boil water to make it clean when I can just walk to my fridge and get a fresh cold bottle in two seconds? Its not worth it at all.
Thanks for the heads up.
I found additional research here at this article: http://chemistry.about.com/od/waterchemistry/fl/Can-You-Drink-Rain-Water.htm
I haven’t found anything really that talks about if well water is very sanitary. As said in my post, the best way to drink rain water after you contain it is do just, filter it, and also boil it, to get some of the bad bacteria out of it. To me that sounds like the safest way to do things.
I found this article very interesting! As a kid (and still today) I would always tilt my head back and let the rain fall in. But your post led me to wonder whether drinking water out of a well is safe. I’ve been doing it my entire life, until I came to Penn State, and experienced no health problems. I was just wondering if you ready anything or found any studies about how sanitary well water really is? I found an article posted by the EPA and they listed info for private drinking wells (http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/well/) but as we know, nothing can be conclusive.
Wow I never would have thought of a topic such as this one. It makes a lot of sense that rain water would collect some things from the air as it is falling down. It seems very interesting to debate whether you can drink it or not! My one suggestion is to proofread this next time. There were many spelling errors in this. Otherwise it was a very interesting blog post!
I found this article very interesting, I had never really thought about rainwater as something that could be dirty, after all, it does fall from the sky and appear to be untouched by man-but apparently not. In your post you mentioned different ways in which one is able to decontaminate rain water, all of which seemed to be very formal, or even intricate ways of doing so (such as with the process involving the Cistern). Wouldn’t one simply be able to use Iodine pills or tablets to purify the water? I certainly hope there are less expensive means available to purify water, because if the water is [legally] available we may as well use it!
I feel everywhere is going to be different when it comes to rain water not just because of runoff and pollution but the acidity of the rain differs too. I would not drink rain simply because you don’t know its acidity, which could be very dangerous. Below is a chart explaining the different acidity levels throughout the United States alone. So therefore I would not drink rain unless its acidity was checked first and by that time I am sure I could just pick up a water bottle.
http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/environment-book/acidrain.html
http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/.
This article was really intriguing. You talked about how rain water can be contaminated, and consequently we should take caution, or treat the water, before we drink it. However, I wonder if in places with less run off and pollution, how much cleaner would the rain water be? This article (http://chemistry.about.com/od/waterchemistry/fl/Can-You-Drink-Rain-Water.htm) suggests that the levels of pollution, pollen, mold, and other contaminants in rain water are possibly lower than public drinking water supply. It would be interesting to compare rain water vs public drinking water in one area, and do that comparison in different places and compare the results.