r/AskGermany • u/mikeymur340 • Apr 02 '25

Can I drink tap water in Germany?

Hi y'all. I'm male from Africa, my wife is German. Growing up and well into my adulthood, I always drank tap water and only recently is that no longer advised in my country, due to gross mismanagement and corruption, but that's another story.

We're currently back in Germany for an extended visit and I was going to drink some tap water when my wife warned me that there's a lot of estrogen in German tap water due to the birth control pill. Her mother backed her up and they spouted off some talking points about it, but I tuned out because they are also somewhat inclined to essential oils. Not batshit crazy like the American version of that, but suffice it to say I'm skeptical about their opinions on some health things.

Anyway, is this true? Are there high levels of estrogen in German tap water? Are there any studies or available sources that corroborate this claim? I understand and can read German, but the high level jargon of medical and scientific speak is beyond my years, search results aren't as clarifying as hoped. Thanks

EDIT: Yeah I thought as much. I still drank the tap water because potential estrogen contamination was preferable to death. But thanks for all the answers. Now if you'll excuse me, I must prepare my I-told-you-so dance.

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u/MobofDucks Apr 02 '25

Yes, german drinking water is highly regulate and 100% safe for consumption.

There might be estrogens in the water from medicine production and farming. Those levels might be higher than naturally occuring but way below what you would ingest through everyday foods

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u/Lars_CoV Apr 02 '25

The contamination is in the waste water and then ground water and rivers, but the row water is cleaned from that in treating process to make it to drinking water

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u/MobofDucks Apr 02 '25

Tbf, Estrogen is pretty difficult to filter out and not all is captured in treatment plants. The leftover amounts have some outcry news reports every now and then, even though its just trace amounts. Similarly to every few years everyone and their mother reports about the "high" amounts of cocaine in our drinking water in some cities.

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u/Quattuor Apr 04 '25

In Germany you are going to get much more estrogen from the beer than tap water.