Who Knew? Tap Water Tips

We’ve all heard it a million times: To flush the lead that’s built up overnight in household pipes, run the faucet for a minute or more each morning before brewing coffee or filling your water bottle.

But did you know that one flush won’t do you for the rest of the day? So say researchers at the University of North Carolina’s Environmental Quality Institute, who found that lead is back at 25 percent of overnight levels within ten minutes of flushing the tap, and at 50 percent within 30 minutes.

Don’t throw up your hands and buy stock in Evian just yet, though -- the UNC water-quality experts have a simple solution: Flush the tap, then fill up a pitcher and drink from that for the rest of the day.

Bonus: If you let the uncovered pitcher sit in the fridge for a few hours, virtually all the disinfecting chemicals that your water supplier adds to battle germs (but that can be harmful in their own right) will evaporate. So rather than doing it first thing in the morning, “flush and fill” before you hit the sack at night.

(Shameless plug: Click here to read my Real Simple article on drinking water and your health.)