Rapper-turned-actor Chris “Ludacris” Bridges recently ignited a flurry of concern among his social media followers when he knelt on an Alaska glacier, dipped an empty water bottle into a pristine blue pool of water, and drank it.
A video capturing Ludacris savoring the glacial water and exclaiming, “Oh my God!” garnered millions of views on TikTok and Instagram. However, the footage also drew warnings from viewers who cautioned that the untreated water could be contaminated with the parasite giardia, potentially endangering his health.
In response to these concerns, Martin Truffer, a glaciologist from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, dismissed the fears as unfounded. “He’s totally fine,” Truffer assured on Wednesday, adding, “It’s sort of understandable that somebody would be concerned about just drinking untreated water, but if you drink water from a melt stream on a glacier, that’s about the cleanest water you’ll ever get.”
Ludacris had donned ice cleats to fulfill a bucket list aspiration of walking on Knik Glacier, located about 40 miles north of Anchorage. He was in Alaska to perform at the Alaska State Fair and was clearly delighted by the taste of the glacial water. “I’m a water snob,” he said in a later video before a concert in Minneapolis. “It was the best tasting water I’ve ever had in my life.”
Giardiasis, the illness caused by giardia, manifests through symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach cramps, and dehydration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise against swallowing water while swimming and recommend boiling or filtering water from natural sources like lakes, springs, or rivers before consumption to avoid such illnesses.
Kelly Rawalt, spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, emphasized in an email that the department does not advise drinking untreated surface water. They have issued guidelines for safe drinking practices for outdoor enthusiasts, including adding chlorine or iodine to water containers and letting them sit for an hour before drinking.
Truffer acknowledged that he was familiar with Ludacris only because his Fairbanks neighbor named a cat after the rapper. He noted that while it isn’t always safe to drink from streams in the wild, the water Ludacris drank had no exposure to biological activity. “There’s just really no concern on these glacial streams about safety,” he said, adding, “I’ve done this many, many times myself without ever having any issue.”
Alaska is home to approximately 100,000 glaciers, covering about 28,800 square miles—roughly 3% of the state. This is 128 times the area covered by glaciers in the other 49 states combined, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
For many visitors, seeing an Alaskan glacier is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yet, climate change is exacting a heavy toll. A recent study revealed that the melting of Juneau’s icefield is accelerating, with the area now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it did in the 1980s.
