In one of my geology classes, we did an analysis of the composition of melted snow. This was fresh snow that had been collected from the campus grounds. The lab tech that actually did the analysis told us that he could tell from from the compositions of various samples when the local steal mill was operating and when it wasn't. However, even when the steal mill was in full production, the water from the melted snow was still purer than the stuff that came out of the taps. This would also apply to rain water. So, yes it is safe to drink rain water in most places, Especially if you give some time to wash the pollutants out before you collect you sample. ****************** "blackbarley: Bob, your answer is quite showing you drink rain water regularly" First of all, I am not Bob. He is my brother. Second, Getting sufficient rain water to drink is not easy in most of the places where I have lived. I have spent the vast majority of my life in arid regions where it does not rain all that much at any one time. Therefore, in order to collect sufficient water to make it worth my while, I would need some kind of collection system that would occupy a fairly large area. So, no I haven't drunk rain water on a regular basis. However, when I was living in Utah, I did not hesitate to eat fresh snow if I felt a need for liquid. ****************** "David Hedrick: good answer, how long to settle and what pollutants at what concentration were found?" That particular experiment was so long ago that I don't remember the specifics. ****************** "Alatea: Where do you teach? Radioactive materials can be in rain/snow from the air!" If you are going to start worrying about radioactive materials in rain or snow, then I guess you better just stop eating because they will wind up in you food as well. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible to avoid radioactive materials. There are certain radioactive isotopes that are present in the environment. They do get dissolved in rain water and they do make it into the tissues of the plants and animals that consume that water. Thus there is TRACE amounts of radioactive elements in the air we breath, the water we drink, and the food we eat. This has been true since the beginning of life on this planet and there is nothing we can do about it. I would not recommend eating anything that was grown or raised in the area of Chyrnoble (sp?), or the Bikini atolls, but those are exceptional places. The vast majority of places, the radioactive portion of what we consume is nothing more than the normal background levels that we could not avoid if we tried. So, there really is no point in worrying about it. ****************** "Sacred Wood: you would be able to sell black cows telling they are white" "Daytripper: it's not safe to drink and you of all people know that but you say what gets you good ratings." My answer is based on an actual analysis of precipitation that I witnessed and the reported analyses of the laboratory technician who did it and many similar analyses over the years. Upon what basis do you accuse me of lying.

it's not recormended to drink but shouldn't cause aney serios harm if you live in a big city i.e. London it would make it more acidic and less safe to drink.

If you drink rain water it's safe but if you live where acid rain is then it's not safe and you'll die...acid rain destroys everything...it's caused by factories and pollutions in the air. But yeah rain water is safe to drink.

Yes. Rain water is normally acidic because carbon dioxide (found normally in the Earth's atmosphere) reacts with the rain water to form carbonic acid. This gives a normal pH for rain water of 5.6 to 5.7 (the lower the number, the more acidic, 7 is neutral, higher is more alkaline). Acid rain is so called because the rain water reacts with pollutants sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides to form sulphuric and nitric acids. This can increase the pH of rain water to 4 (and very occasionally a pH of 2 has been recorded). However you have to consider that vinegar has a pH of 2.2 and lemon juice a pH of 2.3, so the acidity of acid rain isn't anything to worry about. Also, stomach acid is usually between pH 1 and 2 so there really isn't anything to worry about. The problem with acid rain is the effect it has on the environment after it has fallen, but to drink, all rain water is perfectly safe. Probably more so than ground water or tap water.

We have drunk our rainwater here in Philippines for years. It is safer than water from our well as that may be contaminated with faecal matter. Ground water in general is almost certain to be more contaminated than rainwater, as it was originally rainwater and will have collected other solutes and solid suspended matter on the way to you. It may also have been chlorinated.

yes, but only when collected through safer means i.e. when collected directly in a bucket or from a roof first washed to make it germfree.

No it's not safe. Rainwater contains pollutants, soil, plant parts, insect parts, bacteria, algae, and sometimes radioactive materials that the rain/snow has washed out of the air. If filtered with one of the filtering systems that you can buy in stores nowadays, and then boiled, you could probably drink the water safely. However, it is safer yet to get your water from municipal water supplies or from wells that are frequently tested. David Cook - Argonne National Laboratory

You can't make a blanket statement that correctly answers your question...it depends. When water evaporates it is the purest form of water. No contaminants are evaporated with the water vapor. This water vapor forms clouds. When the water condenses and drops as water droplets it still is just H20. But, as the rain drops or snow flake drops through the atmosphere, just about anything that is floating in the air can be attached to the water droplet. So, it depends on what is in the air column the rain drop encounters as it falls that determines whether the water collected at the ground is safe enough to drink. What happens to the rain as it hits the roof and is funneled through the gutter to the barrel. You must also consider how you are collecting the water and how it is stored.

No. the pollution in the sky, is the same pollution that falls to earth as rain. next time you feel obliged to drink a cup of rain water, first have it analyzed in a laboratory. the chemical content of rain water will surprise you.

Chocolate rain is

NO! it is not good for you! Apart from what was already mentioned rainwater does not contain essential trace elements which are essential for human development - copper, magnesium, silica, carbonates, iron, fluoride etc are all naturally occurring in drinking water and are found in your municiple supplied drinking water and added to bottled water. If you are going to be a long term drinker of rain water you will need to take mineral supplements to compensate for this otherwise you will get sick from mineral deficiencies (plus don't forget to boil it first as your rainwater storage tank will eventually grow biofilms and bacteria)

No.

After falling through a filter made up of miles of pollution? Look at it, don't you see the spectrum colours of an oil slick on the surface?