Bacteria in airline drinking water

[poetgirl]

For those of you who travel by airplane, I thought you'd be interested in the following information from the EPA regarding the presence of choliform bacteria in airline drinking water:

http://www.epa.gov/airlinewater/questions.html

I was first alerted to it by a recent mention in the July 2005 edition of Self magazine. They stated that "water on 13.5% of U.S. jets tested positive for the bacteria, which often co-exist with dangerous disease-causing organisms such as E.coli."

I happened to be on a flight, reading that! Anyway, I was glad that I did read it, because I've been traveling weekly for the past two months and noticed that my gut was more messed up than usual during the week (I have IBS-D.) At first, I just attributed it to stress and my crazy travel schedule. My IC is under control, so I can tolerate tea and coffee. Like any other frequent business traveler, I'd often request a hot beverage from the flight attendant, usually to keep my energy up. After I read that, I decided to stop ordering tea or coffee, and noticed an immediate improvement. I'm sure most people without chronic illnesses are not impacted by this at all, but those of us with IC and other related diseases are often more susceptible to bacteria levels in drinking water.

The EPA site mentions advises that "passengers with suppressed immune systems or others concerned should request bottled or canned beverages while on the aircraft and refrain from drinking tea or coffee that does not use bottled water. While boiling water for one minute will remove pathogens from drinking water, the water used to prepare coffee and tea aboard a plane is not generally brought to a sufficiently high temperature to guarantee that pathogens are killed."

Anyway, I'm sure that many of you with flying with IC may not be inclined to drink coffee or tea anyway, but for those of you who can tolerate it (or know of other frequent fliers) I thought it was helpful information.

[ICNDonna]

I have always asked for bottled water on flights. I don't like clorinated water and the water on most flights has too much clorine for me to drink it.

Donna

[A.J.]

I always request bottled water as well, but thanks for the info!