1
00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:06,120
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from HowStuffWorks dot com where smart Happens. Hi.

2
00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:10,560
Speaker 1: I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, can water go bad?

3
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:15,040
Speaker 1: Many people store water for emergencies like hurricanes and power failures.

4
00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:18,760
Speaker 1: This is especially true in rural areas where drinking water

5
00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:22,759
Speaker 1: comes from private wells. These wells are useless unless there's

6
00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,400
Speaker 1: power to run the pump. It turns out that there

7
00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,040
Speaker 1: are two ways for water to go bad. You can

8
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 1: easily demonstrate the first way by filling a bucket with

9
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:33,479
Speaker 1: tapwater and leaving it out on the back porch for

10
00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:36,640
Speaker 1: several days. After about a week, you'll find that the

11
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,519
Speaker 1: water in the bucket contains mosquito larvae, algae, and various

12
00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: other life forms, none of which you would want to

13
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:47,199
Speaker 1: be drinking. From this experiment, you can decide that storing

14
00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,519
Speaker 1: water in an open container is a bad idea unless

15
00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:52,680
Speaker 1: you have a plan to purify the water when you

16
00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,160
Speaker 1: need to drink it. Storing water to close container works

17
00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:58,880
Speaker 1: no better if that water that you place in the

18
00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,080
Speaker 1: container is contained eminated in some way. You need to

19
00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:05,319
Speaker 1: put pure water in a clean container and then process

20
00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,759
Speaker 1: it in some way to eliminate bacterial contamination. You can

21
00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,440
Speaker 1: process the water with heat, just like you do with canning,

22
00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,520
Speaker 1: or you can use a chemical like chlorine or iodine.

23
00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:18,840
Speaker 1: The second wave for water to become unfit for drinking

24
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,039
Speaker 1: is for something from the container to leach out into

25
00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,720
Speaker 1: the water. As an extreme example, imagine what would happen

26
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:28,240
Speaker 1: if you were to store water in a lead container.

27
00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:31,480
Speaker 1: Lead would leach out into the water and make it poisonous.

28
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:34,360
Speaker 1: The container you use needs to be made from a

29
00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,759
Speaker 1: food grade material in order to avoid leaching problems. Glass,

30
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:43,160
Speaker 1: stainless steel, and some plastics are food gray. Do you

31
00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,520
Speaker 1: have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so,

32
00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,440
Speaker 1: please send me an email at podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com.

33
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:52,960
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

34
00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:56,600
Speaker 1: to HowStuffWorks dot com.