Is copper water healthy? What copper does in your body

One of the oldest habits there is

Water that has stood overnight in copper has been drunk for thousands of years, and copper is at the same time one of the best studied metals there is. Below is what copper does in your body, which eight claims Europe recognises for it, and what a copper bottle delivers of that.

In short

• Copper is a trace element your body uses every day, from your energy metabolism to the transport of iron in your blood.
• The European Commission recognises eight health claims for copper, among them normal energy metabolism and the protection of cells from oxidative stress.
• Copper surfaces are demonstrably antibacterial. The American EPA registered copper alloys in 2008 after tests showed that more than 99.9% of bacteria such as MRSA and E. coli were killed within two hours.
• Water that stands overnight in copper shows a lower bacterial load in laboratory research.
• You need very little of it: EFSA works with 1.3 milligrams a day for women and 1.6 for men, and it is in ordinary food.
• In Ayurveda the ritual is called tamra jal, and it is one portion a day.

A trace element your body works with daily

Copper is in wholemeal bread, nuts, seeds, pulses, shellfish and dark chocolate, and your body works with it every day. It plays a role in your energy metabolism, in the transport of iron, in connective tissue, in your immune system and in the pigmentation of skin and hair.

That reaches right into your cells. The enzymes that carry out the last step of energy production in your mitochondria run on copper; how that works is in why mitochondria need copper. And because copper and iron are linked through ceruloplasmin, copper also turns up in the story about energy and tiredness: that is in iron, copper and tiredness.

Eight claims Europe recognises

The European Commission has approved eight health claims for copper, based on assessments by EFSA. They cover normal energy metabolism, the nervous system, connective tissue, the pigmentation of hair and skin, the transport of iron, the immune system and the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

Which eight they are and what they rest on is in the eight official EU claims.

Those claims are about copper as a nutrient, about what your body does with the copper from your food. It is exactly that element your bottle is made of.

And copper water?

The habit of letting water stand in copper is called tamra jal and comes from Ayurveda. The Sushruta Samhita, one of the foundational texts, already names water from a copper vessel. The ritual is simple: fill it in the evening, let it stand overnight, drink it first thing in the morning. The full background is in tamra jal, the Ayurvedic tradition.

What has been measured about it concerns the metal itself. Copper surfaces kill bacteria on contact: the EPA registered copper alloys in 2008 as an antimicrobial surface after tests showed that over 99.9% of bacteria such as MRSA and E. coli were killed within two hours, and researchers in Southampton and India looked into it further. Microbiological research into copper storage vessels shows the same pattern: water that stands in copper for a longer time comes out with a lower bacterial load. The evidence in order is in can copper really kill bacteria.

So you drink from a vessel that works against bacteria itself, in a material you can polish back endlessly. The tradition keeps it at one portion a day, and that fits how copper works: it is a trace element, so a small amount is what your body works with. What that rhythm looks like is in how often a day you drink from it.

How much do you need?

For adults, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) works with 1.3 milligrams a day for women and 1.6 milligrams for men, a fraction of a gram. The safe upper limit is around 5 milligrams a day, well above what you take in with ordinary food. That makes copper one of the calmest nutrients there is: you need little of it and it is in plenty of everyday food. EFSA confirmed that 5 milligram upper limit again in 2023. Whether your tap water is hard or soft makes little difference to that; soft or hard water in a copper bottle explains why.

Those European values are based on what adults already take in on average, so with a varied diet you are usually well covered. There are situations where it is worth paying attention, though. Which ones is in copper deficiency: how often does it really happen. If you take medication or are unsure for another reason, run it past your doctor.

What we have measured

What we say about copper, we keep to the eight claims Europe recognises. And what is in the material, we have measured. RTC Laboratory in Moradabad, NABL accredited, measured 99.21% copper and 0.75% zinc to ASTM-1621 and IS-228. URS Products and Testing put a water bottle, a mug and a pyramid against the European rules for materials in contact with food, and of the nineteen heavy metals examined not one was detectable in the water that had been standing in the product.

Exactly what was measured and by whom is in what our copper products are made of.

How to start

Fill your bottle with still water tonight, leave it, and drink it first thing tomorrow morning. There is no more to it. What a copper bottle gives you in practice is set out in benefits and drawbacks.

Have a look at the copper water bottle, the cup, the mug and the jug, or browse the full Kopero collection.