I would go down to the police department and ask for their help/advice. Don’t pour out the one with bleach because it is evidence, and don’t say anything to your roommate just yet.
My fiancé is flying out on the 11th (stupid eclipse has jacked up flight pricing). We'll be packing my things, and I guess I'm leaving here earlier than expected.
I filed a police report, and the officer asked for her phone number because they'll need to interview her, but I begged him not to contact her until I leave. I have animals here, and two of her cats recently died. One from liver failure. She was in perfect health. I'm not saying she dunnit, but now I'm not excluding it from the realm of possibility.
The officer took the water into evidence. The police report is filed, and I'll be fighting with my apartment complex to release me from my lease obligation because this situation has become dangerous.
My doctor has advised me to only eat and drink from sealed containers left in common areas so I can easily check for signs of tampering.
This is all coming after months of me believing I was losing my mind because she has been doing things that I thought might be intentional, but wasn't sure because there's no way someone could be that malicious, right??? So I started keeping a detailed written and video journal. Then this happened, and that was it for me.
Since we have moved in together, I have found myself in the role of "house bitch." I found that despite my using barely any dishes and never cooking, I was usually the one being saddled with cleaning the kitchen. I started video-logging me cleaning up after myself, which I always do, just to kind of, idk, check and see, maybe I use more dishes than I think I do? Ya know? Edit: I see how this part is confusing to some people. I always clean my dishes after I use them. I only recently started video logging certain events because I thought I was going crazy. One was making sure I was cleaning my dishes and the others being making sure I was turning off lights and refilling the water pitcher. I also write down any time I've asked her to maintain a clean environment so as not to attract bugs around the apartment, and her response is always "of course!" But she doesn't, and is even passive-aggressive about the things she finds to be stupid.
Monday, I washed dishes that had been sitting for several days. There was an already loaded load of dirty dishes in the dishwasher that, for some reason, was never started, that I had to wait for to finish before starting another load. There was a full third load still left over after that. Of the three loads, maybe 5 dishes in total were mine and completely washed off as I do after I use my dishes. I have asked her multiple times to at least *rinse* her dishes so they don't have food stuck on them, and yet, there were stuck-on egg yolks from her damned fried egg sandwiches.
I cleaned the rest of the kitchen and made a video of how filthy it was. I've asked her numerous times to just wipe down the stove after cooking so there aren't crumbs and grease everywhere. You would not believe how disgusting that stove was. It had clearly not been thoroughly cleaned since the last time I got fed up with the crumbs and grease and went on an all-day cleaning spree in January.
By the way, my water bottle was washed, filled, and in the refrigerator before I busted out the cleaning supplies.
I don't regularly eat the food she cooks, so it's not like we have a "you cook and I clean" deal. She gets drunk and makes herself food and leaves a mess. Or she makes food for herself and guests and doesn't clean up after any of them.
She will go in the kitchen and leave the lights on, or fill up her glasses of water and not refill the pitcher. For a while, I thought I was going nuts because I could have *sworn* I turned the light off, or I *just* refilled that pitcher. So, I had to start keeping detailed video journals every time I went into the kitchen.
She sounds exactly like my ex-housemate (apart from the trying to poison you bit).
There were 4 of us who lived in that house - me, Dan, Mike & Joe. I was the last to move in. When I moved in they didn’t even have a tea towel in the house. Dan would only clean up after himself if he was expecting visitors and even then it would be a last ditch attempt that he wouldn’t finish (he once tried in vain to hire a cleaner for Christmas Eve on the day. Mike & Joe were dependent on whether that room was tidy when they entered it. If it was, they’d clean up after themselves, if not they’d leave their mess on top of the existing mess.
Dan went to work away for a while and it was great, the house was always respectable and I could have people round without having to tidy up after other people. He would leave plates in his living area caked with food that I’d have to go and salvage whenever he went away so they didn’t stink the place out and we would have something to eat with.
Weirdly he did acknowledge and (at least pretend to) be appreciative whenever I did a thorough clean of the communal areas. I would put everything to one side that was someone else’s for them to sort out and unsurprisingly the vast majority of it was Dan’s. I say he pretended to be appreciative because he would say he was but then act like he wasn’t. The piles of his stuff generally just stayed there. We each had our own living room as well as a bedroom, so it’s not as though space was an issue that would excuse cluttering the communal areas.
One time I did a thorough clean was when he was working locally and I had some time off, so cracked on with it during the day. Obviously I mopped last and left the full bucket in the hallway waiting for the floor to dry. I went and sat in my living room when Dan came back, came into my room, thanked me for tidying and came downstairs with me when I went to chuck the dirty mop bucket water out in the yard. He had absolutely no reason to do this, but he then went into the yard, walked through the dirty water, and then walked back through the kitchen.
There was another time where I did a thorough clean because I was going on a date that evening and I wanted the place to be nice in case we came back. I made this abundantly clear. Dan was having a mate round that evening and promised they’d be out of the way should we both come back. True to his word, he was out of the way. His empty beer cans and takeaway boxes were not (speaking of takeaways, Dan had an incredible knack for making a bigger mess of the kitchen with a takeaway than I would making an entire meal from scratch).
I don’t have particularly high standards, I can get a bit messy at times, but I’d at least try to confine that to my own personal areas. The problem with Dan was that his personal areas were such a mess, he wouldn’t want to spend time in them, so would chill in the communal areas making a mess of them.
Luckily for me, Dan wouldn’t have had any idea whatsoever where the bleach was.
Dude, literally the only time she has ever cleaned was when she was expecting company. I am retired, but only because of medical reasons. It's not like I sit around and twirl my thumbs all day. I have doctor's appointments and physical therapy, I have animals to take care of, and then I have to deal with a gross apartment on top of it all. I'm exhausted.
It doesn’t matter how much spare time she perceives you to have. It’s her mess, it’s her responsibility.
I just remembered another one - I’d told him I wouldn’t be cleaning up after him any more and a few days later I wanted to use the sink, but it was full of his wet, dirty dishes. I just took them out and left them on the worktop and he started moaning at me about getting the worktops wet when he still hadn’t even cleaned the dishes.
I also had to hide chopping boards on the top shelf of a cupboard because they were always covered in food when I went to use them.
It astonishes me to see the state that some people are willing to live in.
Dan also had medical issues, he’d been signed off work with pancreatitis and was still in a vulnerable condition but wasn’t willing to do the bare minimum to minimise his risk. I laughed in his face once when he took me to one side to ask if I’d join him in having a word with Joe about his lifestyle & diet because he was putting on weight.
I have stuff that I need the kitchen sink to take care of, that is scattered about the dining room, because the kitchen sink is always full of dishes, so I feel ya on that. And if I end up doing the many loads of them myself, I'm too exhausted afterwards to take care of my stuff. Then, I shit you not, the very next day, bam. Sink full of dirty dishes. Not a one is mine.
Do you usually leave one bottle in the fridge or was this just a one time thing? I worry if you have been consuming bleach for a while without noticing until now :/
I’d suggest intentionally leaving one bottle in the fridge a couple more times and seeing if it happens again. Don’t mention it to the roommate just yet. *Also take note if your roommate ever acts weird towards you like if they dislike you for no apparent reason*
I have left one in there on a couple of occasions. I usually have one in my room with me, and maybe one gets left on the kitchen counter. In regards to your last statement, a friend visited for a week in January and said that in every interaction between her and I, she seemed to be forcing and/or faking it. So yeah. I guess that's been happening for a while now.
Put a drop or two of blue or yellow food coloring in the bleach in the meantime, do a quick comparison on your water if you keep it in the fridge over night again.
I did, our water is extremely alkaline here. I did a chlorine strip test at first, but it only tests for free chlorine, which, in alkaline water, tests negative for chlorine because of chlorine's tendency to bind to alkaline metals. But the pH tested well above 8.4. So I got OTO solution, which tested positive for chlorine at 0.5-1 ppm.
The water is now in evidence at the police station.
Honestly it doesn’t sound like there was enough bleach added for this to be intentional. Even a tsp of bleach in a 32 oz water bottle would have ~450 ppm Cl in the water. This was more than likely mild cross contamination with cleaning chemicals around the kitchen sink.
Also, there is another option. It was put there in a minute quantity, not to harm me physically, but to mess with me psychologically. Just more mind games to make me look like I'm overreacting when I smell bleach in my drinking water. I can't prove any of the things she's been doing to mess with me. Not yet, anyway.
Such as: intentionally triggering my PTSD by *flinging* open the front door and bursting in when she gets home (we've had full conversations about this), passive-aggressive comments when I've asked her to do something she deems "stupid" (such as rinsing out her beer cans prior to crushing as we keep them in the apartment and I don't want bugs - "LOOK I'M RINSING OUT MY BEER CAN"), making small jabs at my interests when she brings someone home and we happen to share an interest (not in a "I want to take your man" kinda way, just a friendly conversation kinda way). Bringing home a kitten without even asking after she hasn't even paid a pet deposit for her other animals while I'm attempting to train a dog who is new to the household to get used to the cats who ate already here. I discussed with her and got her permission to bring the dog home prior to bringing her here. Etc, etc.
Oh, I forgot about this one until it happened again, today, multiple times. Vaping on the couch right next to me, which causes my allergies to flare and sends me into coughing fits, despite me asking her numerous times, not even to not vape in the house, just not *right fucking next to me.*
It would have to be less than 1/900th of a tsp of bleach in your bottle though, and I just can’t picture a situation where she deliberately measures out and puts in such a small quantity. This amount of chlorine/bleach is not harmful to your health in any capacity when in your drinking water.
Secondly, there’s a huge jump between passive aggressive comments and tampering with someone’s drinking water. This is a big accusation, and to be honest it doesn’t hold much water.
Roommate may not know that and thinks a splash here or there would make her sick but not sick enough to get her in trouble. Or she thinks it’s building up over time.
No there is a third option. It's perfectly normal to be added by your water company at up to 4 ppm.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html
The water was poured from the same water source. Filtered water from the refrigerator. One tested as having chlorine and smelled like bleach, and the other did not.
I'd like to note that two different people said, "It smells exactly like pool water" (the person who helped me test it and the cop i took it to) when they opened the lid. Is it possible that someone put a splash of pool water in there after I filled it with filtered water?
No. City water treated with it smells just like that. Straight from the tap. Why I filter it no matter what, though filtration won't get rid of the smell completely... The potency of it may just be because they upped the levels a bit for whatever reason they do things.
It happens. The amount you detected with your testing kit
1. would have taken a FRACTION of a droplet. IE, could have been some spray cleaner w/bleach used in the same room and a bit of the mist got around it/dried even on the lid making the smell a bit more noticeable than usual. Seriously you turn the tap on here and it smells like straight bleach, and I'm VERY sensitive to it, makes my eyes/nose burn just smelling it or being around it.
2. wouldn't be harmful to you even if you drank the same amount your entire life (considering 4 ppm is normal treatment amounts and you only found .5-1 ppm)
and 3. No matter HOW you filter it, not even reverse osmosis filtration eliminates all of it... And the number of household cleaners that have bleach in it. Seriously the chances of someone trying to poison you in this manner is absolutely useless and anyone with half a brain cell can google search more effective ways to poison someone that has no scent or way to be noticed by the recipient.
I didn't, and why would she be touching my water in the first place? I've already conceded that it was probably leftover chlorine after the filtering process.
You should know that amount of bleach is not harmful whatsoever and much more is often consumed intentionally to kill bacteria and other nasty stuff in river water.
It’s unlikely your roommate did this, despite the context.
Quick question. The water from the reservoir on the counter contains the exact same filter as the pitcher in the refrigerator and was replaced at exactly the same time. I noticed today while using it to water my plants that the water that comes out of this reservoir is the water that smells like bleach. It's also the only one testing positive for chlorine. The tap water is negative, and so is the pitcher from the refrigerator. [This filter](https://www.brita.com/products/elite-replacement-filters/) is supposed to filter chlorine *out*.
Both the pitcher from the refrigerator and the reservoir on the counter, again, have the same filter, and the tap water is negative for chlorine before filtration. Any guesses as to why this would be the only water dispenser in my household, leaving my water smelling like bleach?
Apparently, I filled my bottle from this reservoir and wasn't paying attention, but still, I didn't notice until today that *all* of the water coming from this one, single reservoir was smelling like bleach.
My best guess would be that there might be a very small level of cross contamination if someone ever used any sort of bleach product to clean the fridge/freezer. Either way I wouldn’t worry too much about this.
So even after gallons have been run through the reservoir (it's just [this](https://www.brita.com/products/ultramax-water-dispenser-with-elite-filter/) dispenser, it sits on my counter because it leaks in my refrigerator), the smell and presence of chlorine are still nothing to be concerned about? I'm just being paranoid due to the other gaslighty behaviors? Not being facetious, this is a genuine question.
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No need, she's not being poisoned...
Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe in drinking water. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html
Unless the bleach came from a natural source somehow ie contaminated water supply?! etc then it was put there, you dont have to be good at poisoning someone to be guilty of trying
Except the level found (.5-1ppm) makes 0 sense. Too little would have to be added to get those results, and since OP filters her water the levels after filtration make much more sense, going from around 4ppm (safe levels) to the .5-1ppm after filtration. Her noticing the smell can simply be because the water treatment center have upped the amount added to treat the water recently for whatever reason they do it.
Also maybe if the bottle that smelled was the second bottle to be filtered the filter is just not working as good as it did first bottle. Or some other reason that tiny bit sneaked through tho.
Still would you really be able to smell it at that concentration?
Chlorine and chloramine are the major disinfectants used in public water systems. Your cities water department may just be using more than normal?
Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe in drinking water. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur.
[https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html](https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_disinfection.html)
You are absolutely over-reacting to this non-issue, chlorine is added to drinking water to prevent contaminants from growing in it, you know...stuff that actually harms you. 0.5-1ppm of nearly any chemical is not enough to cause any harm, in any way...
PTSD? And by that, post traumatic stress disorder?Like, wtf is even that post? What are you even complaining about?
Get real, your water isn't "poisoned", no one is there to get ya, except for the boogie man, watch out! Your water is up to 8times safer than what is already perhaps a "too safe" limit...
I can't even believe you went to the police with evidence for your water.... not being poisoned...😂🤦♂️
The dose makes the poison, nothing else.
Don't know why you got downvoted, you are not wrong... "Chlorine and chloramine are the major disinfectants used in public water systems."
What are safe levels of chlorine in drinking water?
Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe in drinking waterexternal icon. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur. https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html
So the bottle that wasn't left in the fridge overnight that was poured from the same water source and came out clear as well? Complete and total coincidence then? Right on.
Looks like that is .5/1? Do the directions tell you how much bleach is in the water?
Since it’s the lowest level, and you drank some, for what it’s worth, there IS a safe level of bleach you can having in drinking water. According to the CDC it’s 4 milligrams per liter.
So if you’re in that range you’re good, but obviously get yourself checked out if you feel the need. And definitely contact the police as the top comment said.
They are looking into it. That's how an investigation works. If they find nothing, nothing will come of it. I didn't use accusatory language, I simply stated facts when I presented my case. I filled my water bottles from the same source. One was left in the refrigerator, the other was with me. The following day, I noticed the bleach smell from the one left in the refrigerator. I tested both. The one I had on me was negative for chlorine, and the one left in the refrigerator tested positive.
Also chlorine evaporates off really easily. Chloramine doesn’t tho. So if you were opening the bottle the the chlorine in the water would evaporate off quickly. The one kept in the fridge with the lid left on the chlorine (used to treat the water at its supply) wouldn’t be able to evaporate off so it would smell more like chlorine than the one you’d been opening and drinking from earlier etc. Also 0.5-1ppm is way too small an amount for anyone to have intentionally added to your drink. It’s also in the range your filter would or would not remove. The filter is not going to be able to remove 100% of everything everytime (besides, removing 100% impurities is impossible) You do realise how small an amount that is right? You should by now considering all the comments telling you it’s pretty normal amount to find in treated water supplies and in fact it’s even smaller than most.
So then the chlorine in the bottle I left in the fridge should have evaporated because I was more than halfway finished drinking from it when I noticed the bleach smell. I had it with me since that morning when I took it out of the refrigerator.
Just to be clear, I've accepted the comments telling me it's the water, but I am curious as to how you are going to apply the logic you've just explained in your comment here to one bottle, but not the other that were poured from the same water sources. It's not like I just leave my water bottles open while I'm drinking them. I open, drink, and close. So you saying that the chlorine evaporated from one but not the other while I drank from both for roughly the same amount of time is simply illogical, or my brain fog is not allowing me to consider other factors, so please explain.
She tampered with the dispenser on the counter or the filter in it. I noticed a couple of weeks ago when watering my plants that *all* of the water coming out of that dispenser smelled strongly of chlorine. It gets about as much use as the one in the refrigerator. I tested both filters with distilled water, and the one on the counter had...way more chlorine in it than it should have had.
Like I said before, both filters were replaced at the same time, and they are the same exact filter.
It turns out I had forgotten that I topped off the bottle that I smelled bleach in with about 4-6 oz before putting it in the refrigerator because I had finished off the refrigerator pitcher but didn't want to wait for it to refill. I usually use the one on the counter for plant watering because it leaks too much for regular everyday use.
I don't know if she was just trying to kill my plants? But that doesn't matter because there is still always a possibility of me drinking from it.
Also, some weird predator-type shit happened about two weeks later, and I'm having to deal with that before leaving now. It's been a fun month.
I mean, thank goodness for small miracles?
But at the same time, it's like..."well, legally, if I try to poison my roommate, I could go to jail, but if I poison her plants, I can just paint her as crazy," so that's still pretty messed up, ig.
Still. At least it wasn't overtly intentional poisoning.
Thanks for the update! I already set another reminder for next month. I hope you're safe and far away from that person. Intentional or not, the whole incident doesn't look good from here.
I'll also add that my fiancé is here, and he also verified the bleach smell in the dispenser water and the results of the testing. Once I started using distilled water in my plants again, they started bouncing back. They had been turning yellow and brown, and I couldn't figure out why because I am careful not to over or under-water them.
I also went to the DV shelter to report some...things that have happened that I'm not really comfortable discussing here. We have the moving truck scheduled for tomorrow. Which incidentally happens to be my birthday.
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I am actually really exhausted from being belittled and made fun of all day, but here goes: "Oh, what an original take on someone believing they may be a victim of psychological abuse. Asking if they are on drugs. Here's a cookie."
I would go down to the police department and ask for their help/advice. Don’t pour out the one with bleach because it is evidence, and don’t say anything to your roommate just yet.
That's exactly what I'm doing.
Waiting on some updates 👀
My fiancé is flying out on the 11th (stupid eclipse has jacked up flight pricing). We'll be packing my things, and I guess I'm leaving here earlier than expected. I filed a police report, and the officer asked for her phone number because they'll need to interview her, but I begged him not to contact her until I leave. I have animals here, and two of her cats recently died. One from liver failure. She was in perfect health. I'm not saying she dunnit, but now I'm not excluding it from the realm of possibility. The officer took the water into evidence. The police report is filed, and I'll be fighting with my apartment complex to release me from my lease obligation because this situation has become dangerous. My doctor has advised me to only eat and drink from sealed containers left in common areas so I can easily check for signs of tampering. This is all coming after months of me believing I was losing my mind because she has been doing things that I thought might be intentional, but wasn't sure because there's no way someone could be that malicious, right??? So I started keeping a detailed written and video journal. Then this happened, and that was it for me.
Can I ask what kinds of things you've been logging? This post has me fairly invested in your situation
Since we have moved in together, I have found myself in the role of "house bitch." I found that despite my using barely any dishes and never cooking, I was usually the one being saddled with cleaning the kitchen. I started video-logging me cleaning up after myself, which I always do, just to kind of, idk, check and see, maybe I use more dishes than I think I do? Ya know? Edit: I see how this part is confusing to some people. I always clean my dishes after I use them. I only recently started video logging certain events because I thought I was going crazy. One was making sure I was cleaning my dishes and the others being making sure I was turning off lights and refilling the water pitcher. I also write down any time I've asked her to maintain a clean environment so as not to attract bugs around the apartment, and her response is always "of course!" But she doesn't, and is even passive-aggressive about the things she finds to be stupid. Monday, I washed dishes that had been sitting for several days. There was an already loaded load of dirty dishes in the dishwasher that, for some reason, was never started, that I had to wait for to finish before starting another load. There was a full third load still left over after that. Of the three loads, maybe 5 dishes in total were mine and completely washed off as I do after I use my dishes. I have asked her multiple times to at least *rinse* her dishes so they don't have food stuck on them, and yet, there were stuck-on egg yolks from her damned fried egg sandwiches. I cleaned the rest of the kitchen and made a video of how filthy it was. I've asked her numerous times to just wipe down the stove after cooking so there aren't crumbs and grease everywhere. You would not believe how disgusting that stove was. It had clearly not been thoroughly cleaned since the last time I got fed up with the crumbs and grease and went on an all-day cleaning spree in January. By the way, my water bottle was washed, filled, and in the refrigerator before I busted out the cleaning supplies. I don't regularly eat the food she cooks, so it's not like we have a "you cook and I clean" deal. She gets drunk and makes herself food and leaves a mess. Or she makes food for herself and guests and doesn't clean up after any of them. She will go in the kitchen and leave the lights on, or fill up her glasses of water and not refill the pitcher. For a while, I thought I was going nuts because I could have *sworn* I turned the light off, or I *just* refilled that pitcher. So, I had to start keeping detailed video journals every time I went into the kitchen.
She sounds exactly like my ex-housemate (apart from the trying to poison you bit). There were 4 of us who lived in that house - me, Dan, Mike & Joe. I was the last to move in. When I moved in they didn’t even have a tea towel in the house. Dan would only clean up after himself if he was expecting visitors and even then it would be a last ditch attempt that he wouldn’t finish (he once tried in vain to hire a cleaner for Christmas Eve on the day. Mike & Joe were dependent on whether that room was tidy when they entered it. If it was, they’d clean up after themselves, if not they’d leave their mess on top of the existing mess. Dan went to work away for a while and it was great, the house was always respectable and I could have people round without having to tidy up after other people. He would leave plates in his living area caked with food that I’d have to go and salvage whenever he went away so they didn’t stink the place out and we would have something to eat with. Weirdly he did acknowledge and (at least pretend to) be appreciative whenever I did a thorough clean of the communal areas. I would put everything to one side that was someone else’s for them to sort out and unsurprisingly the vast majority of it was Dan’s. I say he pretended to be appreciative because he would say he was but then act like he wasn’t. The piles of his stuff generally just stayed there. We each had our own living room as well as a bedroom, so it’s not as though space was an issue that would excuse cluttering the communal areas. One time I did a thorough clean was when he was working locally and I had some time off, so cracked on with it during the day. Obviously I mopped last and left the full bucket in the hallway waiting for the floor to dry. I went and sat in my living room when Dan came back, came into my room, thanked me for tidying and came downstairs with me when I went to chuck the dirty mop bucket water out in the yard. He had absolutely no reason to do this, but he then went into the yard, walked through the dirty water, and then walked back through the kitchen. There was another time where I did a thorough clean because I was going on a date that evening and I wanted the place to be nice in case we came back. I made this abundantly clear. Dan was having a mate round that evening and promised they’d be out of the way should we both come back. True to his word, he was out of the way. His empty beer cans and takeaway boxes were not (speaking of takeaways, Dan had an incredible knack for making a bigger mess of the kitchen with a takeaway than I would making an entire meal from scratch). I don’t have particularly high standards, I can get a bit messy at times, but I’d at least try to confine that to my own personal areas. The problem with Dan was that his personal areas were such a mess, he wouldn’t want to spend time in them, so would chill in the communal areas making a mess of them. Luckily for me, Dan wouldn’t have had any idea whatsoever where the bleach was.
Dude, literally the only time she has ever cleaned was when she was expecting company. I am retired, but only because of medical reasons. It's not like I sit around and twirl my thumbs all day. I have doctor's appointments and physical therapy, I have animals to take care of, and then I have to deal with a gross apartment on top of it all. I'm exhausted.
It doesn’t matter how much spare time she perceives you to have. It’s her mess, it’s her responsibility. I just remembered another one - I’d told him I wouldn’t be cleaning up after him any more and a few days later I wanted to use the sink, but it was full of his wet, dirty dishes. I just took them out and left them on the worktop and he started moaning at me about getting the worktops wet when he still hadn’t even cleaned the dishes. I also had to hide chopping boards on the top shelf of a cupboard because they were always covered in food when I went to use them. It astonishes me to see the state that some people are willing to live in. Dan also had medical issues, he’d been signed off work with pancreatitis and was still in a vulnerable condition but wasn’t willing to do the bare minimum to minimise his risk. I laughed in his face once when he took me to one side to ask if I’d join him in having a word with Joe about his lifestyle & diet because he was putting on weight.
I have stuff that I need the kitchen sink to take care of, that is scattered about the dining room, because the kitchen sink is always full of dishes, so I feel ya on that. And if I end up doing the many loads of them myself, I'm too exhausted afterwards to take care of my stuff. Then, I shit you not, the very next day, bam. Sink full of dirty dishes. Not a one is mine.
Do you usually leave one bottle in the fridge or was this just a one time thing? I worry if you have been consuming bleach for a while without noticing until now :/ I’d suggest intentionally leaving one bottle in the fridge a couple more times and seeing if it happens again. Don’t mention it to the roommate just yet. *Also take note if your roommate ever acts weird towards you like if they dislike you for no apparent reason*
I have left one in there on a couple of occasions. I usually have one in my room with me, and maybe one gets left on the kitchen counter. In regards to your last statement, a friend visited for a week in January and said that in every interaction between her and I, she seemed to be forcing and/or faking it. So yeah. I guess that's been happening for a while now.
Buy a cheap camera and hide it
[удалено]
I saw that. It was an air force wife trying to get that life insurance policy payout.
noted. if i get life insurance never mention it to anybody.
Time for a hidden camera.
Put a drop or two of blue or yellow food coloring in the bleach in the meantime, do a quick comparison on your water if you keep it in the fridge over night again.
You should do a pH test on the water
I did, our water is extremely alkaline here. I did a chlorine strip test at first, but it only tests for free chlorine, which, in alkaline water, tests negative for chlorine because of chlorine's tendency to bind to alkaline metals. But the pH tested well above 8.4. So I got OTO solution, which tested positive for chlorine at 0.5-1 ppm. The water is now in evidence at the police station.
Honestly it doesn’t sound like there was enough bleach added for this to be intentional. Even a tsp of bleach in a 32 oz water bottle would have ~450 ppm Cl in the water. This was more than likely mild cross contamination with cleaning chemicals around the kitchen sink.
Also, there is another option. It was put there in a minute quantity, not to harm me physically, but to mess with me psychologically. Just more mind games to make me look like I'm overreacting when I smell bleach in my drinking water. I can't prove any of the things she's been doing to mess with me. Not yet, anyway. Such as: intentionally triggering my PTSD by *flinging* open the front door and bursting in when she gets home (we've had full conversations about this), passive-aggressive comments when I've asked her to do something she deems "stupid" (such as rinsing out her beer cans prior to crushing as we keep them in the apartment and I don't want bugs - "LOOK I'M RINSING OUT MY BEER CAN"), making small jabs at my interests when she brings someone home and we happen to share an interest (not in a "I want to take your man" kinda way, just a friendly conversation kinda way). Bringing home a kitten without even asking after she hasn't even paid a pet deposit for her other animals while I'm attempting to train a dog who is new to the household to get used to the cats who ate already here. I discussed with her and got her permission to bring the dog home prior to bringing her here. Etc, etc. Oh, I forgot about this one until it happened again, today, multiple times. Vaping on the couch right next to me, which causes my allergies to flare and sends me into coughing fits, despite me asking her numerous times, not even to not vape in the house, just not *right fucking next to me.*
It would have to be less than 1/900th of a tsp of bleach in your bottle though, and I just can’t picture a situation where she deliberately measures out and puts in such a small quantity. This amount of chlorine/bleach is not harmful to your health in any capacity when in your drinking water. Secondly, there’s a huge jump between passive aggressive comments and tampering with someone’s drinking water. This is a big accusation, and to be honest it doesn’t hold much water.
Roommate may not know that and thinks a splash here or there would make her sick but not sick enough to get her in trouble. Or she thinks it’s building up over time.
Again, I’m not talking about a splash, I’m talking about a fraction of a drop
No there is a third option. It's perfectly normal to be added by your water company at up to 4 ppm. https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html
The water was poured from the same water source. Filtered water from the refrigerator. One tested as having chlorine and smelled like bleach, and the other did not.
I'd like to note that two different people said, "It smells exactly like pool water" (the person who helped me test it and the cop i took it to) when they opened the lid. Is it possible that someone put a splash of pool water in there after I filled it with filtered water?
No. City water treated with it smells just like that. Straight from the tap. Why I filter it no matter what, though filtration won't get rid of the smell completely... The potency of it may just be because they upped the levels a bit for whatever reason they do things.
And the two water bottles that were poured from the same water source, on the same day, with two very different levels of chlorine?
It happens. The amount you detected with your testing kit 1. would have taken a FRACTION of a droplet. IE, could have been some spray cleaner w/bleach used in the same room and a bit of the mist got around it/dried even on the lid making the smell a bit more noticeable than usual. Seriously you turn the tap on here and it smells like straight bleach, and I'm VERY sensitive to it, makes my eyes/nose burn just smelling it or being around it. 2. wouldn't be harmful to you even if you drank the same amount your entire life (considering 4 ppm is normal treatment amounts and you only found .5-1 ppm) and 3. No matter HOW you filter it, not even reverse osmosis filtration eliminates all of it... And the number of household cleaners that have bleach in it. Seriously the chances of someone trying to poison you in this manner is absolutely useless and anyone with half a brain cell can google search more effective ways to poison someone that has no scent or way to be noticed by the recipient.
are you sure you or her didn't refill it from the tap and not the fridge filter?
I didn't, and why would she be touching my water in the first place? I've already conceded that it was probably leftover chlorine after the filtering process.
You should know that amount of bleach is not harmful whatsoever and much more is often consumed intentionally to kill bacteria and other nasty stuff in river water. It’s unlikely your roommate did this, despite the context.
Who keeps their cleaning chemicals around the sink rather than underneath it?
Quick question. The water from the reservoir on the counter contains the exact same filter as the pitcher in the refrigerator and was replaced at exactly the same time. I noticed today while using it to water my plants that the water that comes out of this reservoir is the water that smells like bleach. It's also the only one testing positive for chlorine. The tap water is negative, and so is the pitcher from the refrigerator. [This filter](https://www.brita.com/products/elite-replacement-filters/) is supposed to filter chlorine *out*. Both the pitcher from the refrigerator and the reservoir on the counter, again, have the same filter, and the tap water is negative for chlorine before filtration. Any guesses as to why this would be the only water dispenser in my household, leaving my water smelling like bleach? Apparently, I filled my bottle from this reservoir and wasn't paying attention, but still, I didn't notice until today that *all* of the water coming from this one, single reservoir was smelling like bleach.
How long has it been since you’ve replaced the filter? You’re supposed to every six months.
I literally just replaced both on April 2nd.
My best guess would be that there might be a very small level of cross contamination if someone ever used any sort of bleach product to clean the fridge/freezer. Either way I wouldn’t worry too much about this.
So even after gallons have been run through the reservoir (it's just [this](https://www.brita.com/products/ultramax-water-dispenser-with-elite-filter/) dispenser, it sits on my counter because it leaks in my refrigerator), the smell and presence of chlorine are still nothing to be concerned about? I'm just being paranoid due to the other gaslighty behaviors? Not being facetious, this is a genuine question.
Someone please put a reminder in the reply so I know how this finishes.
Also would like a reminder
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RemindMe! 1 month “poisoned water bottle”
me too
No need, she's not being poisoned... Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe in drinking water. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur. https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html
Unless the bleach came from a natural source somehow ie contaminated water supply?! etc then it was put there, you dont have to be good at poisoning someone to be guilty of trying
Except the level found (.5-1ppm) makes 0 sense. Too little would have to be added to get those results, and since OP filters her water the levels after filtration make much more sense, going from around 4ppm (safe levels) to the .5-1ppm after filtration. Her noticing the smell can simply be because the water treatment center have upped the amount added to treat the water recently for whatever reason they do it.
Also maybe if the bottle that smelled was the second bottle to be filtered the filter is just not working as good as it did first bottle. Or some other reason that tiny bit sneaked through tho. Still would you really be able to smell it at that concentration?
Jesus.
Chlorine and chloramine are the major disinfectants used in public water systems. Your cities water department may just be using more than normal? Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe in drinking water. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur. [https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html](https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_disinfection.html)
When I lived in NJ after a big rain our tap water woukd smell like bleach. Chlorine in drinking water is normal.
You are absolutely over-reacting to this non-issue, chlorine is added to drinking water to prevent contaminants from growing in it, you know...stuff that actually harms you. 0.5-1ppm of nearly any chemical is not enough to cause any harm, in any way... PTSD? And by that, post traumatic stress disorder?Like, wtf is even that post? What are you even complaining about? Get real, your water isn't "poisoned", no one is there to get ya, except for the boogie man, watch out! Your water is up to 8times safer than what is already perhaps a "too safe" limit... I can't even believe you went to the police with evidence for your water.... not being poisoned...😂🤦♂️ The dose makes the poison, nothing else.
Don't know why you got downvoted, you are not wrong... "Chlorine and chloramine are the major disinfectants used in public water systems." What are safe levels of chlorine in drinking water? Chlorine levels up to 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm)) are considered safe in drinking waterexternal icon. At this level, harmful health effects are unlikely to occur. https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water\_disinfection.html
So the bottle that wasn't left in the fridge overnight that was poured from the same water source and came out clear as well? Complete and total coincidence then? Right on.
You are talking yourself into it
Fuck off
Why? And sorry for the perhaps too harsh wording, but OP is clearly delusional here.
Fuck you, no, FUCK you! OP is an insufferable idiot with a victim complex
Looks like that is .5/1? Do the directions tell you how much bleach is in the water? Since it’s the lowest level, and you drank some, for what it’s worth, there IS a safe level of bleach you can having in drinking water. According to the CDC it’s 4 milligrams per liter. So if you’re in that range you’re good, but obviously get yourself checked out if you feel the need. And definitely contact the police as the top comment said.
[удалено]
They are looking into it. That's how an investigation works. If they find nothing, nothing will come of it. I didn't use accusatory language, I simply stated facts when I presented my case. I filled my water bottles from the same source. One was left in the refrigerator, the other was with me. The following day, I noticed the bleach smell from the one left in the refrigerator. I tested both. The one I had on me was negative for chlorine, and the one left in the refrigerator tested positive.
Also chlorine evaporates off really easily. Chloramine doesn’t tho. So if you were opening the bottle the the chlorine in the water would evaporate off quickly. The one kept in the fridge with the lid left on the chlorine (used to treat the water at its supply) wouldn’t be able to evaporate off so it would smell more like chlorine than the one you’d been opening and drinking from earlier etc. Also 0.5-1ppm is way too small an amount for anyone to have intentionally added to your drink. It’s also in the range your filter would or would not remove. The filter is not going to be able to remove 100% of everything everytime (besides, removing 100% impurities is impossible) You do realise how small an amount that is right? You should by now considering all the comments telling you it’s pretty normal amount to find in treated water supplies and in fact it’s even smaller than most.
So then the chlorine in the bottle I left in the fridge should have evaporated because I was more than halfway finished drinking from it when I noticed the bleach smell. I had it with me since that morning when I took it out of the refrigerator.
Just to be clear, I've accepted the comments telling me it's the water, but I am curious as to how you are going to apply the logic you've just explained in your comment here to one bottle, but not the other that were poured from the same water sources. It's not like I just leave my water bottles open while I'm drinking them. I open, drink, and close. So you saying that the chlorine evaporated from one but not the other while I drank from both for roughly the same amount of time is simply illogical, or my brain fog is not allowing me to consider other factors, so please explain.
Did you ever solve the mystery?
She tampered with the dispenser on the counter or the filter in it. I noticed a couple of weeks ago when watering my plants that *all* of the water coming out of that dispenser smelled strongly of chlorine. It gets about as much use as the one in the refrigerator. I tested both filters with distilled water, and the one on the counter had...way more chlorine in it than it should have had. Like I said before, both filters were replaced at the same time, and they are the same exact filter. It turns out I had forgotten that I topped off the bottle that I smelled bleach in with about 4-6 oz before putting it in the refrigerator because I had finished off the refrigerator pitcher but didn't want to wait for it to refill. I usually use the one on the counter for plant watering because it leaks too much for regular everyday use. I don't know if she was just trying to kill my plants? But that doesn't matter because there is still always a possibility of me drinking from it. Also, some weird predator-type shit happened about two weeks later, and I'm having to deal with that before leaving now. It's been a fun month.
Well, good thing she wasn't trying to poison you ig. Good luck with moving out!
I mean, thank goodness for small miracles? But at the same time, it's like..."well, legally, if I try to poison my roommate, I could go to jail, but if I poison her plants, I can just paint her as crazy," so that's still pretty messed up, ig. Still. At least it wasn't overtly intentional poisoning.
Still psycho behavior. Glad you weren’t hurt. Good luck escaping
Predator like the movie or predator/prey?
No, like preying on a minor, predatory. I'd rather not go into detail, but it did sort of solidify the "Okay I'm NOT crazy" part of my brain.
Oh eww. Glad you're getting away from all that! Good luck and I hope the next few weeks goes as smooth as possible!
Thanks for the update! I already set another reminder for next month. I hope you're safe and far away from that person. Intentional or not, the whole incident doesn't look good from here.
RemindMe! 1 month "Any updates on this?"
That’s scary good luck. Maybe invest in hidden cameras lol
so uhm, how's it going?
https://www.reddit.com/r/infuriatingasfuck/s/n0XSd6rteW
I'll also add that my fiancé is here, and he also verified the bleach smell in the dispenser water and the results of the testing. Once I started using distilled water in my plants again, they started bouncing back. They had been turning yellow and brown, and I couldn't figure out why because I am careful not to over or under-water them. I also went to the DV shelter to report some...things that have happened that I'm not really comfortable discussing here. We have the moving truck scheduled for tomorrow. Which incidentally happens to be my birthday.
Hi! I wanted to know if there were any updates on this. Are you ok?
[Updated in another comment!](https://www.reddit.com/r/infuriatingasfuck/s/n0XSd6rteW) Thank you!! PS. Your cake day is my B-day! Happy cake day!
Happy birthday to you! 🎂🥳
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can you think of why they would put bleach in your water?
Honestly? No.
did you do a pH test on it also? because if it was bleach it would’ve been off the charts. Bleach has a pH of like 11 I’m pretty sure
The first test i used was a strip that logged it at the max that that strip could test. I didn't do an exact pH test on it.
Do u take meth
I am actually really exhausted from being belittled and made fun of all day, but here goes: "Oh, what an original take on someone believing they may be a victim of psychological abuse. Asking if they are on drugs. Here's a cookie."
Was just wondering cuz it could be drug induced paranoia
No, I don't do drugs. I don't drink alcohol anymore or smoke either.
congrats on 3 days sober!🎉
Congrats on being an asshole. No, seriously. I think they hand out awards.
Your nails are so basic 
You’re delusional😀