Swiss Tap Water is really good. At least Geneva's.
I'm momentarily on France, by my parents, and I really miss it.

Now, tap water, with all the treatments she's got to be *pure* is likely to be *dead water*.

But that's more a spiritual thing. Have you heard about *Masaru Emoto* and his *messages from water* ?




Don't forget we are made of water too.....

I didn't know there was Fluoride in Swiss water.

What is wrong with Fluoride in water?
I thought it was beneficial otherwise why do they add it?

In the UK, Watford was the first place in England to have fluoride added to the water (1965 ish). I am over 40 now, and have not one filling and was putting it down to the fluoride in the water.

I was also told by the dentist years ago that when buying toothpaste, buy any make but buy the one with the most fluoride (appears to be 1450 ppm F) as that is the most important ingredient in it.

__________________
I do not have friends..........I have contingent liabilities

There is fluoride in most Cantons' water supply, but Basle stopped fluoridating in the 1980s. Salt is fluoridated nation-wide.

Complaints against it in the water supply include long-term physical side effects in humans and soil pollution. I don't know whether there's any truth to this, or if the potential problems outweigh the benefits.

When I was living in Wellesley (MA) in the '80s we had to vote on whether or not to fluoridate the water. I'm glad we did - it probably saved me a lot in dental bills.

Disparity and mis/disinformation abound on fluoridation of municipal water in Switzerland ...

The information I got from my dentist is that none of the tap water in any canton in Switzerland is fluoridated. I will check on this and get back.

As for whether the proven benefits outweigh the potential disadvantages, a quick Google search on the subject will give you the information you need to make your own decision. As I said earlier, the naysayers rely on crackpot conspiracy theories with no evidence to back them up. By contrast, there exist decades of research and usage results on many millions of people, to prove the overwhelming benefits of fluoridation of water.

By the way, not all salt in Switzerland is fluoridated. The packaging of fluoridated salt is clearly marked.

As an aside, just why one would choose to receive one's fluoride via a hypertensive agent like salt rather than in water, I have no idea.

In regard to Tea drinking and health, an Asian Government advertised in its
local papers requesting the public not to consume Tea within two hours of a main meal, as a mineral - iron - will not be fully absorbed from the food taken. This was after a study of iron absorption, in that Country.

Sorry but that's wrong. As I stated above, Basel Stadt was the only area that ever added fluoride to the water. There are two tiny little villages in the entire country that have a sufficient level of natural fluoride in their tap water. The whole "rest" of the nation has a fluoride level that's way below what's good for the teeth and good enough for hundreds of millions of people that have lived with that stuff for centuries or even millennia. That's why kitchen salt fluoridation was introduced.

Correct. In Vaud in the 60s we would take Sodium Fluoride tablets as there was none added to the water. It was confirmed during an obligatory field trip at ETH when I visited the water processing plant near lake Bret.

Well, that's my point, I started to smell chlorine in the tap water, and the smell is quite obvious and DISTURBING! (I think I'm on the verge of developing my first ever phobia
I understand that it may be added for disinfection, (and the website pointed above indeed states that contrary to Zurich, where Ozone is used, Basel still resorts to chlorine, acc. to 2007 data).
Funny, I don't smell it in the office tap water (same city, different district), but I don't shower in the office either

London water is the purest in the world. Anything that's been through minimum 7 sets of kidneys has got to be pure.

Yes. More pseudoscientific woo.

A town in the US voted to stop chlorination, and shortly afterward had to contend with an outbreak of typhoid.

Right. The sodium fluoride tablets (Zymafluor) were introduced in Swiss schools in the early 'fifties and discontinued in the eighties when the fluoride content of the kitchen salt was raised to the level that had been recommended by scientists since the 'forties.

I forgot that brand! Yes, entering the classroom, we would get our Zymafluor tablet and a tablespoon of cod liver oil (and we would all share the same spoon).

Flouride. No flouride. I don't really care. What I want to know is how to stop the damn limescale buildup in my kettle. I already only use Britta filtered water but it's not helping. Well, not enough. Any ideas? Please!!! I almost have to chew through the last mouthful of tea.

I had a Tefal OneCup in the UK, boils on demand in a few seconds, filtered water, most of Southern England is a hard water area and I never had any build up in the kettle so it must work...

It is never really boiling though, tea purists might scoff at the lowly 85-90 deg exit temp.

You can get DIY inline descalers for the tap too...

Something like this may be the answer. Scalewatcher

I'm listening........ (I'm quite handy with a hammer and duct tape. )
Do these things actaully work though? Anybody have any experience with one? Anybody else in the Thalwil area have the same problem?

I gave up on Brita filters and now simply pour the boiling water through a tea strainer, which catches all the crunchy bits.

It's lo-tech, but devilishly effective.

Once again DB, geni-ass!

The tap water differs from place to place. In Zürich-City it is half and half from the Lake (cleaned in Wollishofen) and from wells in the upper Sihl areas. In some areas in Glattbrugg it is extremely full of lime and far less so in other areas (some 200 meters distance). For making tea I highly recommend a water filter, as tap water in Switzerland tends to have far more lime than in London or Paris (for example)

My plumber mate reckons the electrical ones are crap, you really need a salt solution...

http://www.easyh2o.co.uk/ may gives you some ideas and brands, salt consumption varies and you really need a lot of space under the sink for the unit and for the salt bags...

You have to use "Entkalker" sometimes, the Durgol



being my favourite.

And for washing I generally use things with "Entkalker" included like the various Ariel-Gel things.

And in case of Brita, you have to change the insert a bit more frequently than indicated.