Is hard water unhealthy? — Explainer video

Transcript

Is hard water unhealthy? What water hardness really means.

In the kettle, limescale is a nuisance. In the glass, the opposite is true. What we call “limescale” is dissolved calcium and magnesium: two minerals the body needs every day.

Water dissolves them from soil and rock, above all from layers of limestone and dolomite. The more of them dissolved, the harder the water.

In Switzerland, hardness is measured in French degrees of hardness. Up to 7 degrees, water is considered very soft, above 42, very hard.

So is hard water unhealthy? No. The German Nutrition Society cites reference values for adults of around 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day and, depending on sex, 300 to 350 milligrams of magnesium. Mineral-rich water can contribute to this.

There is no health-based upper limit for hardness in drinking-water legislation: hard water is safe to drink without restriction. Anyone with questions about mineral intake or with symptoms is best advised to consult a doctor.

Why does limescale build up in the kettle, but not in the body? On heating, solid calcium carbonate precipitates. A heating element can neither absorb nor release it. The body absorbs the minerals in a controlled way, regulates their levels in the blood and excretes what it does not need. So drinking hard water leaves no deposits behind.

Per litre, the water of Piz Sardona contains 87 milligrams of calcium and 35 milligrams of magnesium. On paper, it would sit well within the hard range: the result of around 12 years in the rock. What is a nuisance around the house gives water its substance in the glass.

More on this in the Piz Sardona Academy.