How much TDS should healthy drinking water contain? What level of TDS is considered to be too low? All these are common questions that cross the mind when looking to source clean and healthy drinking water.
The answer to all these questions is a slightly complicated one for the simple reason that no definitive information is available. In fact, to make matters more confusing, there seems to be conflicting and contrary points of view on the issue.
But to make things slightly clearer right in the beginning, I'll tell you 3 main things. There is more evidence supporting that lower TDS levels in water DO NOT harm the health of a person, TDS levels above 500 are not desirable and above 1000 are considered unhealthy.
There has been some criticism lately for drinking water that is low in TDS. The reasons given are that low TDS levels make the water acidic, do not provide the necessary salts and minerals that are naturally found in water and also leach the minerals out of the Body. I believe there are no extensive studies to prove this.
There is some scattered data that purports to support this fact but it is quite sketchy. I am including a few links at the bottom of this article to the studies and you can read them for yourself. However, there are several examples that show that low TDS levels in water do not have an adverse effect on the health of an otherwise healthy person. Many scientific facts also support this line of thought.
The first example is of the US Navy and the US Armed Forces. Both the US Navy and the US Army in the field drink water with very low TDS levels. On ships and submarines, sailors drink distilled water that has TDS level is less than 1. In the field, the US Army drinks reverse osmosis water which is also low in TDS levels. Both of these agencies have officially gone on record and said that they have not observed any negative health effects on thier personnel.
The second example is that of world health organisation. It says nothing about the Health aspects of drinking low or high TDS level water. It simply states that TDS is an aesthetic factor and anything less than 300 is excellent because it tastes the best, 300 to 600 is good and more than that is fair and then over 1000 is unacceptable. This observation is purely based on the observations made by water testing experts. It has nothing to do with health report concerns whatsoever.
Western nations such as Canada as well as Europe also considers the TDS to be an aesthetic and secondary factor while the absence of bacteria and pathogens in water is the main criteria for making water safe and healthy to drink.
According to American as well as Indian agencies, TDS less than 500 is considered acceptable to drink.
The most important thing to understand about the TDS is that while the number tells you how much dissolved solids are presence in water, the number itself does not tell you what exactly the dissolved solids are.
In some areas it might be just calcium and magnesium salts which are practically harmless for drinking. However if the source of water is contaminated it might contain toxins like faecal matter, arsenic, heavy metals, volatile compounds, sulphur, fluoride, at Sectra. These should not be present in water at all. Therefore when the source of water is suspect and you fear contamination, even lower TDS levels suggest a good filtration method is needed. In case of dissolved solids this method is usually using a reverse osmosis water purifier.
There was another study done in New Mexico where the water supply of 800 TDS was replaced by TDS levels of 40. No ill health effects were detected during the course of one year on the participants of this experiment. Various links are mentioned at the end of this post so you can read about this information directly.
Another important idea that supports the fact that lower TDS levels in water are not harmful to the human body is how the human body works. There are mechanisms in place that control the concentration of fluids in the body. This is pretty much the same as the bodies ability to maintain a certain pH balance in the body.
People also talk about drinking acidic and alkaline water but the fact is that the body has a way balancing the pH balance of the body. If this wasn't the case you would not be able to have anything acidic like lime or wine or so many other kinds of food. Similarly you wouldn’t be able to have alkaline foods like milk and dairy products.
The fact is that we are constantly taking fluids with different levels of TDS. It is one of the major functions of the kidneys to maintain the balance of fluids in the body. You can read more about it here in this article. So scientifically, according to human biology, it is believed that a healthy human body is not affected by the low levels of TDS in water.
No one really puts a number on what the low level of TDS actually is. They just keep using phrases like ‘too low’. or ‘low TDS is bad’. How much is low TDS?
Is hundred is too low, or is it 50 or is it 20. I have gone through scores of reports on this and there is absolutely no mention of what are considered as ‘low’ TDS levels in water. They only talk about the higher limits like it should be below 500 or below 300 is excellent for drinking or that it should not be over 1000 that is unacceptable, things like that.
It is interesting to note that the one study done by some Russian scientists that said that low TDS level in waters can be harmful also stated minimum amount of magnesium and calcium that should be present in water as TDS. The ideal amount was 20 MG of magnesium and 50 MG of calcium per litre. Both these things add to a total of about 70 MG per litre. So going by this study one can assume that 70 is the minimum TDS level that should be present in water and anything below that is considered to be unhealthy according to this specific report .
This is pretty much the only official study done that considers low TDS level to be harmful to the human body. It is available with the world health organization. Fortunately, most of the current reverse osmosis systems that have the feature for re-mineralising the water maintain a TDS level of 70 to 100. If you are using a reverse osmosis water purifier at home, make sure it has a re-mineralization filter in it that puts in the essential salts and minerals back,
What is the acceptable Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Level in Drinking Water
Assessment of pH and Total Dissolved Substances (TDS) in the Commercially Available Bottled Drinking Water (scroll down to page no.390
W.H.O. Proof That R.O. Water Is Bad For Your Health Unless It Is Remineralized
The answer to all these questions is a slightly complicated one for the simple reason that no definitive information is available. In fact, to make matters more confusing, there seems to be conflicting and contrary points of view on the issue.
But to make things slightly clearer right in the beginning, I'll tell you 3 main things. There is more evidence supporting that lower TDS levels in water DO NOT harm the health of a person, TDS levels above 500 are not desirable and above 1000 are considered unhealthy.
There has been some criticism lately for drinking water that is low in TDS. The reasons given are that low TDS levels make the water acidic, do not provide the necessary salts and minerals that are naturally found in water and also leach the minerals out of the Body. I believe there are no extensive studies to prove this.
There is some scattered data that purports to support this fact but it is quite sketchy. I am including a few links at the bottom of this article to the studies and you can read them for yourself. However, there are several examples that show that low TDS levels in water do not have an adverse effect on the health of an otherwise healthy person. Many scientific facts also support this line of thought.
The first example is of the US Navy and the US Armed Forces. Both the US Navy and the US Army in the field drink water with very low TDS levels. On ships and submarines, sailors drink distilled water that has TDS level is less than 1. In the field, the US Army drinks reverse osmosis water which is also low in TDS levels. Both of these agencies have officially gone on record and said that they have not observed any negative health effects on thier personnel.
The second example is that of world health organisation. It says nothing about the Health aspects of drinking low or high TDS level water. It simply states that TDS is an aesthetic factor and anything less than 300 is excellent because it tastes the best, 300 to 600 is good and more than that is fair and then over 1000 is unacceptable. This observation is purely based on the observations made by water testing experts. It has nothing to do with health report concerns whatsoever.
Western nations such as Canada as well as Europe also considers the TDS to be an aesthetic and secondary factor while the absence of bacteria and pathogens in water is the main criteria for making water safe and healthy to drink.
According to American as well as Indian agencies, TDS less than 500 is considered acceptable to drink.
The most important thing to understand about the TDS is that while the number tells you how much dissolved solids are presence in water, the number itself does not tell you what exactly the dissolved solids are.
In some areas it might be just calcium and magnesium salts which are practically harmless for drinking. However if the source of water is contaminated it might contain toxins like faecal matter, arsenic, heavy metals, volatile compounds, sulphur, fluoride, at Sectra. These should not be present in water at all. Therefore when the source of water is suspect and you fear contamination, even lower TDS levels suggest a good filtration method is needed. In case of dissolved solids this method is usually using a reverse osmosis water purifier.
There was another study done in New Mexico where the water supply of 800 TDS was replaced by TDS levels of 40. No ill health effects were detected during the course of one year on the participants of this experiment. Various links are mentioned at the end of this post so you can read about this information directly.
Another important idea that supports the fact that lower TDS levels in water are not harmful to the human body is how the human body works. There are mechanisms in place that control the concentration of fluids in the body. This is pretty much the same as the bodies ability to maintain a certain pH balance in the body.
People also talk about drinking acidic and alkaline water but the fact is that the body has a way balancing the pH balance of the body. If this wasn't the case you would not be able to have anything acidic like lime or wine or so many other kinds of food. Similarly you wouldn’t be able to have alkaline foods like milk and dairy products.
The fact is that we are constantly taking fluids with different levels of TDS. It is one of the major functions of the kidneys to maintain the balance of fluids in the body. You can read more about it here in this article. So scientifically, according to human biology, it is believed that a healthy human body is not affected by the low levels of TDS in water.
No one really puts a number on what the low level of TDS actually is. They just keep using phrases like ‘too low’. or ‘low TDS is bad’. How much is low TDS?
Is hundred is too low, or is it 50 or is it 20. I have gone through scores of reports on this and there is absolutely no mention of what are considered as ‘low’ TDS levels in water. They only talk about the higher limits like it should be below 500 or below 300 is excellent for drinking or that it should not be over 1000 that is unacceptable, things like that.
It is interesting to note that the one study done by some Russian scientists that said that low TDS level in waters can be harmful also stated minimum amount of magnesium and calcium that should be present in water as TDS. The ideal amount was 20 MG of magnesium and 50 MG of calcium per litre. Both these things add to a total of about 70 MG per litre. So going by this study one can assume that 70 is the minimum TDS level that should be present in water and anything below that is considered to be unhealthy according to this specific report .
This is pretty much the only official study done that considers low TDS level to be harmful to the human body. It is available with the world health organization. Fortunately, most of the current reverse osmosis systems that have the feature for re-mineralising the water maintain a TDS level of 70 to 100. If you are using a reverse osmosis water purifier at home, make sure it has a re-mineralization filter in it that puts in the essential salts and minerals back,
What is the acceptable Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Level in Drinking Water
Assessment of pH and Total Dissolved Substances (TDS) in the Commercially Available Bottled Drinking Water (scroll down to page no.390
W.H.O. Proof That R.O. Water Is Bad For Your Health Unless It Is Remineralized
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