figi water: only partly on cpap

[norm]

The therapist from the DME that helped me with my first CPAP machine told me to use distilled water. I travel a lot and asked him what I should do if I am in a hotel and don't have distilled water. He said use bottled water then.

I've follwed that advice a few times, when I diden't have distilled water available. Last week I got in a hotel late at night and did not have distilled water. The hotel had an overpriced bottle of Fiji water in the room, so I poured some of that into my humidifier. I didn't rinse the humidifier and after two days there was a large mineral buildup. I looked at the Figi label and saw that Figi water has a whole of minerals in its water. I would have been better off using tap water.

What do others do when they travel and do not have access to distilled water?

I mentioned the Fiji episode to my wife, one of whose moral undertakings in this life is strong and unyielding opposition to bottled water. She's a geologist and I thought I would share what she had to say about Figi water, both as something to drink and something not to use in your CPAP:

I read the Fiji water website. It is thick with urban legend and geological garbage.




http://www.fijiwater.com/FAQ.aspx




The word "artesian" sounds fancy, and they don't explain it except to say that their water comes from an aquifer. An aquifer is underground layering of gravel, sand, fractured rock, etc., that holds a lot of water. An artesian aquifer is under the pressure, so that if you drill into it, the water squirts out. Usually, this happens because the aquifer is shallow and tilted, so you drill into a low end of it, say, in a valley, and the water flows from the higher end in a nearby mountain and squirts right out of your well. Very convenient. If you have an artesian well on your property, you don't need to spend a lot of money or effort pumping the water out--in fact, you'll have to keep your well plugged in order not to waste the water. But the word "artesian" says absolutely nothing about the water source, except that it's probably shallow.


The Fliji website leaves you thinking that their aquifer might be really deep and safe, because they say it takes hundreds of years for rainwater to "filter" down into it, through sand, gravel, rock, etc. That sounds like a long time. And it is a long enough time so that the water in it predates the Industrial Revolution--in other words, an aquifer full of water that old would be safe from industrial-age contaminants even if it were smack under downtown Manhattan instead of next to a rainforest in Fiji. The water in such an aquifer fell as rain 300 or so years ago, before there was any such contamination. You can think of it as fossil water, left over from cleaner, simpler times.


Most of the aquifer water in North America is far older than that, about 10,000 years old, left over from when the glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age. We're talking deep aquifers here--no artesian bursts of water; here, we need big pumps to get that 10,000-year-old water up to the surface. But for sure it's clean water. Nobody was polluting it back then.


Shallow aquifers are not quite as safe. For one thing, earthquakes, landslides, sinkholes, cave-ins, erosion, etc., may shift the groundwater patterns, opening up channels for more recent water to reach the aquifer, water that may not be as clean as the stuff that's been percolating down for hundreds of years. Also, sometimes people inject nasty waste into aquifers as a disgusting way to dispose of it. In the Fiji case, it's easy to imagine such a scenario: they've been "harvesting" the fossil water, lowering the water table in the aquifer, leaving some old wells no longer productive. Meanwhile, nearby mining operations are "harvesting" deposits of all those fancy minerals above the aquifer. Mine waste could be injected into some of the old, no-longer-productive water wells. It happens all the time, all over the world.


Another misleading term in the Fiji website is "soft," referring to the mineralized taste of the water, which is said to have a pH of 7.5. A pH of 7.5 puts it slightly on the non-acidic side, which does sound like it ought to be "soft," but in fact it's toward the end of the scale we associate with "hard" water, which is what leaves mineral scales behind and doesn't mix well with detergents. However, it's well within the range of normal surface and groundwater, which can range from 6 to 8.5 in pH. Nothing unusual. but the bicarbonates and other minerals that make the Fiji water slightly "limey" are the exact same minerals that cause hard water problems in some parts of the country, problems that are treated with expensive equipment and chemicals. It's interesting that the marketers use the word "soft" for what the rest of the world thinks of as "hard" water chemistry. It's not dangerous. It's very mild, in fact, if the official corporate number is to be believed. But they've convinced customers to pay good money for something that other people pay money to try to get rid of.


The bigger lesson in all this is that Fiji water is just groundwater, like much tap water. Probably most bottled water is groundwater. The mineral content is unpredictable and unregulated. Bacterial content, I believe, is regulated, from both tap and bottled water, so neither should make you sick. But as for what you should put into your machine--there's no reason on earth to think that random bottled water would be less mineralized than random tap water--and in fact you've come across an example of the exact opposite. Fiji water is "harder" than tap water in Tuscaloosa or Portland, more prone to lime scaling, less suitable for your machine. Other bottled water may be better or worse--there's no way or knowing because it's not regulated at all. But in general, tap water will be fairly good, because it is regulated, and most water utilities are careful to maintain a pH that does not harm machines.


The Geological Society of America sponsors an annual lecture series, whereby a geologist spends a year visiting campuses all over America. When I was in school, the geologist who was doing these lectures kept a blog about the geology of all the places he traveled to--and one of the topics on the blog was taste and quality of the local tap water. Both Portland and Tuscaloosa ranked very high on his blog for clean, tasty, nicely lightly mineralized water. I recall that Bloomington ranked low--its water comes from an aquifer where, like Fiji, there's lots of bicarbonates, making the water "hard."


Perhaps the mineral scale buildup in your machine is a good topic for your listserv. I'm surprised that it showed up so quickly, after just a couple of nights--makes me suspect that the pH may actually have been much higher than what the company claims. And yes, vinegar is the logical remedy--but I don't know what it will do to the plastic. You don't want to etch the surface of the plastic with acid.


Distilled water is obviously ideal for your machine. Random bottled water is a worse bet than random tap water--it's far more variable in its mineralization, pretty much unregulated by government.


And yes, I think the whole bottled water thing was stirred up by people who wanted to make us scared of tap water so we'd buy their product. And we fell for it. How many gazillion tons of plastic are wasted every year because people think they have to carry around their drinking water? Oh well.

[Murphy]

When I travel I will buy small bottles of purified water, I don't think this hurts the humidifier, I think it is very close to distiled water. I agree about the waste from empty bottles, although I do recycle. I just saw on HSN the shopping channel a product I am thinking about buying called Liv Green, which is a reusable sport bottle with a removable filter that they put in the top the filter wil filter I think they said 75 gallons before you need to replace the filter.
Eileen

[bap40]

When bottled water showed up on the market, I could not believe that people actually PAY for water, outisde of paying for it from the city, county or whatever. I recall reading about some of the labeling used and how it portrays this water as being so pure and clean when in fact some of it does come from the city or tap water and those minerals and other things are added at the factory. Marketing is a powerful thing. I to REFUSE to pay good money for a drink of water. I will take water with me in the form of water bottles, with my plain ole tap as the source. I can't believe that the public falls for the pretty waterfalls, springs, mountainside pictures and pays for a drink of water. I agree with your wife.... By the way, I don't think people should have to pay to watch the TV either. There is really no choice in that matter these days, but it used to be FREE.

[Needsdecaf]

There are a couple of types of bottled water. Some is spring-type water, which is bottled and not really treated directly from the ground.

Other waters like Dasani and Aquafina are nothing more than tap water that has been filtered, usually through reverse osmosis.

If you are stuck, I would use Aquafina. Dasani filters their water then puts salts back in it so it doesn't taste so flat. To me it tastes very salty.

If you do not have these brands in your area, look for bottled water that does NOT say spring water. Look at the labels for water that says purified. Look at the back of the label and it should tell you how it is purified.

Also look at the ingredients. If it has anything other than water, stay away. Most of the other ingredients are minerals designed to give "taste" to the water, and they will cause buildups.

You can buy small bottles of distilled and purified waters at baby stores like Babies-R-Us or Buy Buy Baby (those are in my area). They are for travelling with children's humidifiers.

I have also seen multipacks of small bottles at places like Wal-Mart. If all else fails, do a search on the internet and you should be able to find a source, probably with a local outlet.

I use tap water in my home humidifiers, but they are large enough to clean easily.

[Bearded_One]

"I am thinking about buying called Liv Green, which is a reusable sport bottle"

Almost all sports bottles are made of polycarbonate which is a very tough, clear plastic that doesn't impart a taste to the water -- it sounds like a perfect water bottle material.

Polycarbonate leaches a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA), an estrogen-like chemical, into the water

http://leas.ca/On-the-Trail-of-Water-Bottle-Toxins.htm

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200311/lol5.asp

http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/ ... er_bottles

[Needsdecaf]

"I am thinking about buying called Liv Green, which is a reusable sport bottle"

Almost all sports bottles are made of polycarbonate which is a very tough, clear plastic that doesn't impart a taste to the water -- it sounds like a perfect water bottle material.

Polycarbonate leaches a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA), an estrogen-like chemical, into the water

http://leas.ca/On-the-Trail-of-Water-Bottle-Toxins.htm

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200311/lol5.asp

http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/ ... er_bottles

And saccharine causes cancer. Oh wait, 15 years later now it doesn't.

[Pineapple]

I don't know how long you are gone on your travels, but I simply fill one of my camping waterbottles (about 1 quart) with distelled water and put it in a ziploc in may suitcase (just in case the bottle leaks - so far it hasn't knock on wood)

[CRMW]

I use Aquafina as it is demineralized. I have no objection to tap water, but the chlorine irritates my nose.

[Babette]

I don't travel overseas. The one plane trip I took in the Fall, I had time in my itinerary to stop and stock up on groceries, and bought distilled water then. I didn't use it all - big deal - it was 99 cents and I just left it there.

When I go on road trips, I fill a 1 liter bottle with distilled water, and carry that with me.

One time I ran out of Distilled water. I used tap water for two nights. I washed the humidifier chamber out thoroughly each morning, and dried it with a towel, to try to ensure I was scrubbing off any mineral deposits. So far, my HH chamber is clean as a whistle. No minerals for this babe.

I say you're much better off using tap water in a pinch than anything else. Particularly overpriced "bottled water" with dubious claims to fame.

Now, I've been a big fan of bottled water. In places where before I HAD to choose a carbonated sugar beverage, now I can have water. That makes a difference to me.

HOWEVER, I have recently decided there are ways I can avoid OVERUSE of the bottled water. We do not have portable water in my office. For good or bad, we're a public agency, and they don't feel the need to spend tax dollars upgrading our 100 year old water supply. No biggie. However, I no longer lug in flats of water bottles for office use. I bought a ceramic water dispenser that sits on my little office kitchen counter (normally around $45 - I found one for $5 at Goodwill), and I lug in 3 gallon bottles that sit on top of it. No electricity, no monthly contracts, nada. I refill the bottles at the local grocery store for $1.50 a pop. The water is supposed to be oh so purified. I could just use tap water, but honestly, since I live 50 yards from my office door, I don't really trust my home water supply much more than the office water.

So that's my part. I fill re-usable sports bottles from my Brita pitcher at home, and keep them in the fridge for trips to the gym or miscellaneous road trips. And after watching that news show about the germies that grow in re-used water bottles, I WASH THEM RELIGIOUSLY AFTER EVERY USE!

I still have to buy bottled water for conferences and trainings we hold. But I've cut way back on that, and for smaller meetings in my office, I invite people to either fill up at my dispenser, or utilize the cold water I have stored in containers in the mini fridge.

Go Green! As much as you can. Baby steps count.
Babs