Exploring the Question: Can You Safely Drink Toilet Water?

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(Edited)

Recently, I stumbled upon a rather unusual statement on social media, claiming that one could drink toilet water without harm. Intrigued by the audacious assertion, I decided to delve into this topic with a quick Google search. To my surprise, I found that this question has been pondered by many curious minds. While toilets are undeniably designed for the disposal of our bodily waste, including urine and feces, the question remains: why would anyone even consider consuming water from a toilet bowl?

For me, the answer is a resounding "NO." Even if the water appears clean, the idea of drinking from a toilet is something I'd personally reserve for the direst of circumstances like being stranded in the Sahara desert with no other water source in sight. In our modern and civilized world, there are countless alternative sources of clean and safe drinking water that make the notion of resorting to toilet water seem unnecessary and unwise. Let's take a scientific dive into the matter and explore whether drinking toilet water is truly a viable option.


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When you flush your toilet, all the visible waste in it disappears making it look like the toilet is extremely clean, but this isn't true because there are going to be residual microscopic bacteria which are left over. If you want to know how many bacteria colonies are there in the clean water and basin of the toilet seat, then you can confirm by looking at how many bacteria are present in the fecal flora of a person. There are about 100 billion bacteria per gram of feces and that should speak a lot and most of those bacteria are living bacteria.

You can imagine that with such an amount of bacteria in one gram of fecal matter, what would be in about 200gm of your fecal waste. So it will be completely impossible for the trillions of bacteria to go with the flushed water. So if a person drinks toilet water, they can end up with food poisoning from Lactobacillus possibly or other microorganisms. While this can go away with proper treatment and care, it can get worse.

Consider the instance of sepsis, a condition characterized by a systemic immune response to a bacterial infection in the blood. This form of blood poisoning can rapidly lead to organ failure, making it potentially fatal. Sepsis triggers an immune reaction that aims to eradicate the pathogen, but unfortunately, it can also damage healthy cells. This sequence of events can result in septic shock, which manifests as a rapid heart rate, plummeting blood pressure, and ultimately, organ failure.


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While doing my study, I came across the case of 8-year-old Raley Browning who took to drinking toilet water out of water starvation by her parents which led to fatal septic shock. With this, it is no doubt that drinking toilet water can be harmful although it might not lead to sepsis. If you drink water containing bacteria such as E.coli, H.pylori, Vibrio, clostridium, and Salmonella, then it can lead to serious diseases such as Peptic Ulcer, Cholera, Typhoid fever, Necrotizing enteritis, and when these bacteria are in large amount, they lead to sepsis.

From this, you would have seen that drinking toilet water isn't a good idea at all but if you find yourself drinking one which has a high bacteria load, do not start to think it is a death sentence provided you are taken to the hospital quick enough. Hospitals have protocols that can help to manage sepsis. This includes Antibiotics to kill bacteria and reduce the bacteria load in the blood, then Vasopressors are given to increase the blood pressure, and blood transfussion is done while stopping the rapid production of cytokines by giving anesthetics.

The notion of drinking toilet water may have sparked curiosity both online and offline, but the scientific realities and potential health hazards make it an option best left unexplored for me.

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I asked my dog Coco, who is an expert on all things stinky. She said that the porcelain water bowl in the bathroom not only is a safe source of water, it is the best source of water in the house.

The porcelain water bowl holds the water up at the perfect height for drinking, etc.

The only problem is that the humans keep shutting the toilet lid; so it is not a reliable source of water.

!WINE

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Lol... Dogs are very funny animals, and they can eat feces because food travels through their gut very fast unlike we humans. Coco might enjoy the water but @irivers would not want to have a feel of typhoid, food poisoning, or even sepsis :)

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Interesting and eye opening article @oluwatobiloba
Definitely, the toilet water do contains a lot of germs 🦠 and in cases people also recommend to drink your own urine. I say that’s also dangerous. As the urine is also an excreted product and drinking can lead severe damage to your body and I doubt it helps in your thirst.

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Yes, Urine is another waste I will never try. I would write on drinking urine, I am sure it is going to be a fun one. Thanks a lot for reading @vinamra

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Drinking toilet water is a complete No, May we not be in a situation of being completely stranded as that I presume could be the only reason why anyone would want to do that.

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