What follow-up has there been on this since the 2012 publication in a rather obscure journal? Most importantly, is there a source of copper vessels in most countries that is as inexpensive as other means of reducing bacterial load in drinking water?
Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
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Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#112This has been quite routine knowledge in India. My parents' families have routinely been using Copper vessels to store water. The ones who are better off actually use Silver utensils to eat & drink food / water.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#113Using copper vessels to store water for drinking is somewhat common in parts of India. Seen it in Maharashtra. Lead vessels were traditionally used (and may still be) to make certain dishes (like rasam, a watery lentil-based sour soup) in South India. No idea about any benefits or the reverse. Update: Also, I've seen relatives of the previous generation to mine (in India), sometimes eating from silver plates. Not sur…
Never heard of lead being used in India for storing food stuff.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#114Probably a good idea thus to use all copper pipes in your home!! Using copper vessels would've been great in an era where there weren't industrial pollutants like lead or PFOAs or other things...nowadays in India just a copper vessel wouldn't be sufficient.
In the US as well there are various contaminants in water supplies all over the country from PFOAs to lead so it's a good idea to use a water filter or such. I don't think there's much danger of bacteria in US drinking water.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#115I have a copper water bottle that I bought online from India: https://i.imgur.com/3k2QBQI.jpg I love the thing, and I was drinking water out of it... But one time I put alcohol in it... and I took a few sips from it and I almost immediately started feeling nauseous and weird... now I'm scared to use it, even for water.
A Moscow Mule is typically served in a copper mug, and I'd think the negative effects from the alcohol would be the primary thing to worry about.
The thing to worry about would be poisoning from copper toxicity (by misuse above, or by overuse of copper sulfate), or if made with beryllium, beryllium poisoning. If somehow 30mg/kg of copper were swallowed, it is potentially lethal. And if any food residue is left stuck to a piece of copper cookware, it should be thrown out immediately so it doesn't leech copper out.
If all he ever did was serve a cold moscow mule using his "copper water bottle", maybe the alcohol is the problem. But we only know he used it to drink water and alcohol. We don't know if it's lined, or if the lining was damaged, or if he used a hot or acidic liquid inside it at some point, or whether it has a corrosive residue.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't sound normal. Many alcohol stills use copper (wikipedia has this bit of information: "(a copper still) removes sulfur-based compounds from the alcohol that would make it unpleasant to drink")
Yeah, that's why I'm scared of it now... any clue how I could test it?
There are copper testing kits for aquarium water, but your health isn't really worth risking with a $10 aquarium test. Throw it away and buy a new one, and research how to properly handle copper cookware.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Copper, silver, and gold are also toxic in high doses but not in the same extreme way as lead, which should be kept as close to zero as possible.
Yes, empirically, I guess at least gold cannot be too or immediately toxic, since thin gold leaf is sometimes put on sweets as a decoration in India - usually on peda kind of sweets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vark Silver too, according to the above page.
> Yes, empirically, I guess at least gold cannot be too or immediately toxic
Gold goes out from the body unchanged from how it went in.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#118Probably a good idea thus to use all copper pipes in your home!! Using copper vessels would've been great in an era where there weren't industrial pollutants like lead or PFOAs or other things...nowadays in India just a copper vessel wouldn't be sufficient. In the US as well there are various contaminants in water supplies all over the country from PFOAs to lead so it's a good idea to use a water filter or such. I do…
There was a problem with scurvy when people stored the lime as juice in copper containers and completely removed the vitamin C in the process.
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gold... toxic?
there was even an episode of house where the cause was gold poisoning.
I'm pretty sure it was silver, not gold.
It gives a person a "gray/purple" skin color that makes them look dead. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria
Re: Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Bacteria (2012)
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, empirically, I guess at least gold cannot be too or immediately toxic, since thin gold leaf is sometimes put on sweets as a decoration in India - usually on peda kind of sweets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vark Silver too, according to the above page.
If I recall correctly, gold is extremely unreactive as far as metals go -- I'd imagine that it may just be more-or-less biochemically neutral. Edit: I may be dead wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organogold_chemistry
I think you're correct. Pure gold is extremely hard to dissolve or oxidize. There's three common methods, using a mercury amalgam(which is an alloying, so the gold is still unreacted), cyanide, or a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid called aqua regia.