Why does the water at work make my bladder hurt?

April 19, 2021 12:38 PM

For some reason, whenever I drink out of the water coolers at work, my bladder feels irritated. I don’t have an infection. I was away from work for a couple of months and this went away, but came back within a couple days of being at work. What is in the water that’s irritating my bladder?

The water runs from the wall through a filter into a cooler. I drink tap water at home with no difficulty. I’m quite sure it’s related to the water supply as on the days I don’t drink that water (I’ve experimented by buying bottled water or bringing water from home), I don’t get the symptoms. I’ve also tried changing/cleaning my reusable water bottles and changing clothes to allow more breathing room. Have you experienced this? What gives?

posted by stillmoving to Health & Fitness (24 answers total)

Can you find out when the filter was changed last? You’ve eliminated other variables, it’s probably getting slimy (so sorry).
posted by sageleaf at 12:42 PM on April 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

Is it possible that there's something in the water cooler? How often do they get sanitized/disinfected? Maybe the filter needs to be changed out?
posted by angiep at 12:43 PM on April 19, 2021

Depending on your location and the state of public health administration there, you might be able to phone somebody who works for a public health or safety office and cares a lot about knowing the exact answer to this question and addressing it.
posted by mhoye at 12:51 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

If the system isn't properly cleaned and filters changed regularly, all sorts of terrible things could be growing in there and contaminating the water. I would stop drinking this water immediately as your own experiments have confirmed it's the water that's causing an issue.
posted by quince at 12:56 PM on April 19, 2021 [21 favorites]

I'd do a water quality test on the water before they change the filter to see what it is that's bothering you. And ammo for why they should change it.

No recommendations on a particular one, however. But I've heard to stay away from the "free" ones, since it's just a lead generation service to sell you water filters.
posted by TheAdamist at 1:01 PM on April 19, 2021

Oh god, if I tried bringing water from home and it didn't happen, I would never drink work water again.

I just recently read a comment somewhere (twitter, maybe reddit screenshot in twitter) by a guy who installed those things saying he won't drink from them. I'm not an expert in drinking water systems but I have fish tanks, a swimming pool, garden containers, reservoir coffee pot and ice machine, and a pond and I can tell you for free: water is disgusting. If it does not get a very specific set of circumstances it quickly turns filthy and repulsive. When water does not move constantly, in particular, like overnight and weekends and holidays, stuff grows.

I have an office-style bottle cooler here at home, rented with monthly water delivery, and yearly they try to get me to pay like $60 to have it "cleaned". The guy who delivered my first one tipped me off: every year just order a new one and have the old one taken away. Of course they clean and re-distribute them but at least they do it in a facility where they take it apart and really clean it, and not just some janky procedure done in my entry hall meant to minimize the risk of water damage. A year is still...I'm not entirely comfortable with that, knowing what I know about water, but it is at least getting used/moved very very regularly.

There are usually a couple of places you can usually get water tested for free or cheap (in the US anyway, and I would assume Canada has similar), but just know that if you use some kind of city/county health department service you run the risk of having your employer visited by officials. That's not necessarily BAD and probably they don't say who reported it but just a thing to think about before you do it.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:02 PM on April 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Yeah, I guess no one else at work experiences it, so I was wondering whether it’s, say, calcium or something, that I’m especially sensitive to. But I guess I will default to nastiness/slime as the diagnosis and investigate replacement filters.
posted by stillmoving at 1:03 PM on April 19, 2021

The comment was here on Metafilter. I forget the user, but he cleaned them for a living and said her would never use one again.
posted by AugustWest at 1:09 PM on April 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

The comment was here on Metafilter. I forget the user,

the user was furnace.heart in this thread: Help with a used water dispenser
posted by yyz at 1:30 PM on April 19, 2021 [7 favorites]

If the water at work is colder than what you usually drink, maybe that's the difference.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:41 PM on April 19, 2021

What makes you think it is your bladder and not your stomach or intestines?
posted by pintapicasso at 1:44 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I guess no one else at work experiences it

They may just not talk about their bladders in casual conversation!
posted by babelfish at 1:45 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I guess no one else at work experiences it

I mean, are you shouting it far and wide that it hurts your bladder? I wouldn't be so sure you're the only one.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:46 PM on April 19, 2021

Response by poster: Definitely bladder as it’s a urinary urgency feeling that is relieved by peeing.
posted by stillmoving at 1:55 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

So, I'm a drinking water engineer/researcher who has focused on microbiology in water systems. While I don't disagree that a poorly maintained filter can be a health risk, there's no research (to my knowledge) that would support bladder infections from drinking contaminated water; most pathogens would establish in your gut (or get cleared out there) if you drink them. Studies that link contaminated water with bladder infection always involve actual contact: catheters, showering, swimming, etc.

Note: I'm not saying that your pain is not real or that this is completely impossible, but the state of knowledge right now does not support it. I'm also not sure if there are any chemical contaminants that could cause this reaction.

I also don't know: if you have any preexisting conditions (like interstitial cystitis, which may have complicated interactions with other things in drinking water) or if you are prone to bladder infections generally.
posted by Paper rabies at 2:32 PM on April 19, 2021 [12 favorites]

I somehow botched my first reply; sorry.

Please be sure there isn't something about your behavior and expectations with the outside water that may be influencing your opinion on this. Your experiments have been uncontrolled. You're both the tester and the testee. Other factors besides the water contents may be in play.

You might have a specific sitting position, or duration of sitting, at the office. You might be unconsciously changing these when you bring in the outside water because you believe in advance that something's wrong with the outside water. You might drink less, or more slowly, with the outside water. You might simply have more confidence in the outside water, automatically relieving your symptoms.

In other words, you really haven't presented good evidence that only the cooler water could be causing your sensations.

By all means, have the water tested by a good lab. Human tests on the other hand are not possible when you're both the test subject and the experimenter.
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:52 PM on April 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

***... that something's wrong with the water cooler water.***
posted by JimN2TAW at 3:01 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Bringing your own water without scientific proof may be easier than generating scientific proof.

I mean, I also had the thought that urine has been through a lot -- the gut, the circulatory system, the kidney ultrafiltration -- so the culprits are pretty constrained. But. If the water consistently doesn't seem to agree with you, I wouldn't drink it.
posted by away for regrooving at 3:07 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Paper rabies and JimN2TAW are wise. I suffered from a similar issue many years ago and in my instance I was drinking more caffeine at work, walking around less, wearing less comfortable/ breathable clothing, and generally hitting up the vending machines for sugary snacks - all things I didn't do at home. Cutting out these culprits (and taking large doses of a cranberry supplement per the recommendation of my doctor) made it go away in under a fortnight. It wasn't an infection per se, but my bladder was just getting annoyed with its quality of life. YMMV obviously, but I wouldn't have thought of the clothing and underwear aspect until my doc brought it up.

Edit: Gah, hit reply too soon. Do try bringing in water from home or from an outside source. Presumably you're drinking about the same amounts but sipping throughout the day will act on your bladder very differently from necking a bottle during a short lunchbreak, for example.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:43 PM on April 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Okay so I had this same issue and suspicion of the water at my workplace in the Before Times when I actually went to work! For me the issue turned out to be tight pelvic floor muscles, exacerbated no doubt by my horrible office chair, lack of physical movement, and stress.
I would highly recommend seeing a physio who specializes in pelvic floor for an assessment!

When I was going down the rabbit hole of what the hell is up with my bladder, I wondered for awhile if I had interstitial cystitis. The urgency & pain can be triggered by a number of things, including caffeine, different foods, and even some types of water (depending on PH). This might be something to look into also?

Nthing the grossness of water coolers though.

Best of luck figuring it out, having an irritated bladder really sucks!
posted by DTMFA at 4:43 PM on April 19, 2021 [6 favorites]

I was thinking the same thing as DTMFA when I first read your question.
posted by catquas at 5:01 PM on April 19, 2021

You should refer this question to HR and Risk Management. Better that they spend a little time looking into it than paying big bucks later in a class action suit from their employees.
posted by SPrintF at 6:03 PM on April 19, 2021

Just nthing the responses above suggesting that it may not be water but some other artefact of work. To test this, don't drink the work water for a month or so but keep everything else the same and see what happens. It could be related to seating, the commute, your work meals - do you eat the same foods at home as at work or do you have some foods that are only in lunch rotation so are only eaten at work? Etc. Good luck and please keep us posted!
posted by lulu68 at 6:56 PM on April 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Have you been checked for diverticulitis? Sometimes a bout can feel like a bladder issue at first.
posted by rw at 8:17 PM on April 19, 2021