Home and office filtration systems are saving plenty - no piles of plastic, recyclable bottles and no machines - but how long can you expect a clean stream from any method of cleaner drinking water?
FOX 29's Joyce Evans decided to find out. Since we spend much of our days at work, we decided to see what was in the water at FOX 29's Old City studios.
We started in the newsroom by properly swabbing the water fountains and worked our way into the lunch room and then we made our way to the water fountains in our human resources office.
We also grabbed all of the water pitchers out of the fridge.
"I can take a look at this and see what we can find," microbiologist Dr. Farbod Nekouei said.
The team at EMSL Analytics gathered cultures and we waited, for weeks for the gunk to grow.
Eventually, microbiologists found something called "sphingomonas," inside our filtered fountain water. which isn't toxic but could make you sick and may even cause serious infection if your immune system is weakened.
"I've seen far worse," Dr. Nekouei said.
Our filtered newsroom and lunchroom fountains still had less bacteria then the unfiltered human resources fountain, which probably won't hurt you but still isn't the cleanest way to drink water.
Faring better was the filtered tap water pitcher, which was doing a great job to catch all of the water born bacteria, but microbiologists still found a few other types of bacteria - the kinds of germs they suspect from the not so clean hands that installed the clean filter.
"It's a good thing we have an immune system," Dr. Nekouei said.
Microbiologists did stress one point: you can't expect to catch every speck - it's just not going to happen. In fact, they sent us back with a super sterile kit to capture more samples.
If you're looking for some help on how to properly change your water cooler at home, ehow.com has some good tips.
Wednesday, June 19 2013 10:14 PM EDT2013-06-20 02:14:32 GMT
At approximately 2:45pm Wednesday afternoon, a bank robbery occurred at the National Penn Bank on E. High Street in Pottstown, PA. Police have captured three of the fours suspects so far.
At approximately 2:45pm Wednesday afternoon, a bank robbery occurred at the National Penn Bank on E. High Street in Pottstown, PA. Police have captured three of the fours suspects so far.
Wednesday, June 19 2013 8:19 PM EDT2013-06-20 00:19:58 GMT
Breaking news in North Philadelphia on the 2300 block of North Tenth Street, where three people, including a pregnant woman, were shot. This happened just before four this afternoon.
Breaking news in North Philadelphia on the 2300 block of North Tenth Street, where three people, including a pregnant woman, were shot. This happened just before four this afternoon.
Wednesday, June 19 2013 6:11 PM EDT2013-06-19 22:11:57 GMT
If you hated going to traffic court in Philadelphia, you won't have to anymore! Today, Governor Tom Corbett signed a bill abolishing traffic court,effective immediately.
If you hated going to traffic court in Philadelphia, you won't have to anymore! Today, Governor Tom Corbett signed a bill abolishing traffic court,effective immediately.
Wednesday, June 19 2013 5:57 PM EDT2013-06-19 21:57:28 GMT
A main line mascot gets the boot. At issue: cultural sensitivity.It's an issue that's been playing out on athletic fields all over America: re-thinking team names and the mascots that go with them.
A main line mascot gets the boot. At issue: cultural sensitivity.It's an issue that's been playing out on athletic fields all over America: re-thinking team names and the mascots that go with them.
Wednesday, June 19 2013 5:47 PM EDT2013-06-19 21:47:02 GMT
City administration officials came before a City Council committee with orders not to talk about the building collapse, but that didn't stop council members from raising questions.
City administration officials came before a City Council committee with orders not to talk about the building collapse, but that didn't stop council members from raising questions.
Wednesday, June 19 2013 5:06 PM EDT2013-06-19 21:06:59 GMT
Six of the people accused in one of the largest public corruption cases in our area's history plead guilty today in court. 18 people total are accused of bilking the Bensalem school district.
Six of the people accused in one of the largest public corruption cases in our area's history plead guilty today in court. 18 people total are accused of bilking the Bensalem school district.
WTTG FOX 5 & myfoxdc 5151 Wisconsin Ave. NW Washington, DC 20016 Main Number: (202) 244-5151 Newsroom: (202) 895-3000 fox5tips@wttg.com
We put our filters and water coolers to the test to see how clean our drinking water really was at our FOX 29 studios in Old City.
We swabbed our faucets and took what we found to EMSL Analytical Laboratories in Cinnaminson, New Jersey.
