• Question: what is the pH of rainwater? is the pH suitable for drinking?

    Asked by babywabylishypoo to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 24 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Probash Chowdhury

      Probash Chowdhury answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      The pH of rain water varies from place to place simply due to the amount of pollution in the air. Before pollution it was amongst the purest forms of water available. I think it’s still safe to drink (but probably not litres and litres of it) because the pH is within the body’s capacity to cope with it. Drinking a bit of rain water will also not give enough pollutants to affect you either, but drinking litres and litres might upset your tummy.

    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      Yes, rainwater is perfectly good to drink in most places, most of the time – unless there’s a lot of local air pollution. Rainwater is often very slightly acidic – pH 5.5 to 6 or so, because it has a small amount of dissolved CO2 in it, which forms a very weak carbonic acid. I once worked in fog on a volcano, where the pH dropped to less than 1 because of the HCl.. My face felt pretty clean after that one!

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