# How did societies adapt to using alcohol to make water safer? Tags: ancient-history, food - Score: 14 - Views: 28491 - Answers: 9 - Answered: yes - Asked by: Muz (688 rep) - Asked: 2013-03-18 - Edited: 2020-06-17 - Site: history ## Question I've heard that there were two common methods to disinfecting water in the past: boiling water or turning it into alcohol. Presumably, those in the East relied on boiling water, while those in the West relied on alcohol. In the context of contaminated water supply, ethyl alcohol may indeed have been mother’s milk to a nascent Western civilization. Beer and wine were free of pathogens. And the antiseptic power of alcohol, as well as the natural acidity of wine and beer, killed many pathogens when the alcoholic drinks were diluted with the sullied water supply. Dating from the taming and conscious application of the fermentation process, people of all ages in the West have therefore consumed beer and wine, not water, as their major daily thirst quenchers. The experience in the East differed greatly. For at least the past 2000 years, the practice of boiling water, usually for tea, has created a potable supply of nonalcoholic beverages. In ad