Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mysteriousdeltarays]

What are you nuts? I drink but really!

Believe me boiling tap water here is a fools errand. The hot and cold "filtered" water about the same. The worst are the "filters" that are replaced periodicly.

At best all the "filters" are either activated charcoal which will remove organic chemicals and not much else. And boiling, well let us put it is not exactly an autoclave is it?

You think that you are fine, you have symptoms. but you probably do that you just don't notice.

Giardia Lambdia for example merely cause minor symptoms at first, flatulance for example. It is a lovely dinoflagelate that will eventually slowly overcome your immune system. Goof around it enough it will enter your cereberial spinal fluid. Except for a few night sweats you'll feel fine!

Hepititis is always good. Particularly Hep C. Won't notice that for a few years.

Think your Polio vaccination is "up to date?" Think again nothing like a nice subclinical case of poliomylitis to stump the doctors back home.

Leaving water as you drink it behind. May I suggest the idea that it might not be a good idea to eat food that has been prepared with tap water.

The Korean Journal of Parasitology has a nice site, it might make you think about why anti-helmenthetics are by far the largest selling "over the counter medication" in Korea. You can access their archives at http://www.parasitol.or.kr/kjp/all_years.html

This will put me in solid with the locals!

[captain kirk]

Bottled water, six big bottles for 4,000 won or whatever it is.
When I first arrived I had a big, heavy, Chinese style 'old man' bicycle that could carry heavy loads, it being heavy itself. For water I pedaled up to a temple that had a stone basin with the spout the turtle's mouth. Then hurtled downhill to my pad.
Students say they drink bottled water or have one of those Woojin filter machines. Maybe the days of making 'barley tea' out of tapwater are gone? The barley tea bag soaks up the toxins.
The sickest I ever got was from milk, but it was my own fault. I was travelling and left a carton of milk in my pack while I slept, and the yogwan ondol was on, it being winter. And back home 'thriftily' put that carton into the fridge, figuring I could stomach dodgy milk. Two weeks later I was nailed with some kind of walking dead zombie flu for a week, and 'forced' to work through it, things being as they are at haggies.

[igotthisguitar]

[mysteriousdeltarays]

Yes, most certainly.

If one has ever had an experience with an autoclave you would be very assured that sterilizing anyhing is not an easy matter.

"Boiling" as you would consider it would be say boiling water for tea.

It reguires at least twenty minutes of boiling , let's say with the kettle or the top on, or the top on the pot to make a vague approximation.

As far as killing "flouride" You'd have to ask the off-world galaxies.

In terms of chlorine, or Iodine or more accurately Iodide, nothing short of what would be toxic to you, will kill any of the larger microrganisms, much less the smaller ones.

You can read all about it on The Merck Manual of Treatment and Diagnosis, not the "home version." Available on line for free from Merck.com. Search for it, you can find it easily.

You might need a medical dictionary to understand most of it, but that part of the book is easy enough to read.

I might note that nobody took me up on the Korean Journal of Parasitology. All in English.

Let's depend on gossip and hearsay. Always a good idea.

[coolsage]

Up here at the headwaters of the Han River, where heavy industry is prohibited, I've been assured by the locals that the tap-water is safe to drink. After five years of drinking the stuff, there are no apparent ill-effects, although I have trouble getting through the metal-detector at the airport.

[sadsac]

I only use tap water for cooking and coffee.

[Demophobe]

[bucheon bum]

i never drank tap water the two years I was in Korea, but I've drunk tap in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria with no problem. I think that if one can drink tap water in Cairo of all places, you should be able to drink the water in Seoul... If I were to go back, I would probably "risk" it and try it.