This Monday, May 6, environmental scientist Eva Liljeström, author of the book A Toxic-Free Home (Almost), visited the Cadena Ser podcast How do you eat? presented by Ángela Quintas to talk about one of the issues that she has generated the most debates over the years: Is Madrid’s water the best in the world?
The guest began her speech by assuring that it was essential to know the origin of the water to avoid toxic substances that are harmful to health. For this reason, she unceremoniously rejected plastic bottles. ”Someone must have heard about endocrine disruptors. They are substances that inhibit or imitate the function of hormones and directly affect organs with hormonal function. And as a result, many pathologies can arise from exposure to this type of substance. And plastics are disruptors,’ she began by saying.
In addition, the environmental scientist explained that water bottle containers are made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). ”There he is already telling us ‘hello, you are drinking endocrine disruptors.’ For example, I prefer to drink tap water rather than drinking water packaged in plastic, no matter how filtered it is,’ she said.
Regarding Madrid’s water, Eva Liljeström confessed that the myth that ”the capital’s water is the best in the world” was valid 100 years ago. ”Not now and I say this with full knowledge of the facts. If you enter the national drinking water information system, there you can see all the parameters measured in Spanish municipalities. And there you can see almost in real time where you exceed the limits according to which substances that should not be in the water,’ she explained.
”When the water leaves the water purification station, it leaves there meeting certain parameters and is perfect. But no one measures the water from the moment it leaves the station until it comes out of your tap. So what’s up? That water has passed through eight hundred pipes, each one from its father and its mother, there are still lead pipes and many materials because I have suffered it in my flesh. And not to mention the epoxy resins and many things that are found along the way,’ he detailed.
Finally, the guest assured that many times water is also rechlorinated for various reasons. ”Because there has been a leak, contamination at some point. I’m not saying that it isn’t controlled because there is rechlorination, but there may be at one time of the day that that water is not as it should be,’ she concluded.
