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Consumers urged to stop buying bottled water

95 replies

eenybeeny · 16/06/2008 17:25

here

we buy sainsbury's own brand bottled water because our tap water tastes awful and me and DS drink a lot of water. The area we live in has very hard water and it is not nice to drink. Do you buy water? What do you think about this?

OP posts:
silverfrog · 17/06/2008 13:27

MB, I take your point re the science, but I thought that there was an element of recycled, "cleansed" water from waste (sewage and washing machine/baths etc) which went back into our systems?

I am sure that the hormone levels in our water from eg the contraceptive pill have been muttered about for ages (can dimly recall reading stuff about it when at school...)

VeniVidiVickiQV · 17/06/2008 13:30

Smurf, I think traces have been found, but, there is far more risk from hormones found in plastic goods/containers or the process of making such things, if I understand it correctly.

Which is what bottled water often comes in......

VeniVidiVickiQV · 17/06/2008 13:30

I'm sorry silver - I dont know why I just called you smurf!!!!

silverfrog · 17/06/2008 13:34

oh, definitely not disagreeing re: plastics leaching. Am currently having a nightmare time trying to get dd1 (ASD) used to a non plastic cup for drinking out of (she has issues drinking anyway, and as luck would have it has fixated on the only unsuitable cup in the house as "her" cup!)

I totally agree that there should be less ridiculous consumption of plastic bottles/throaway stuff, but I would liek it if there was alittle more clarity about our tap water too...

chisigirl · 17/06/2008 13:36

Katebee, you asked me a few questions so here are my answers... (unless they where rhetorical in which case I'll feel rather silly!)

  • "I take it you are not concerned about what might be in UK tap water?"

No.

  • " Are you happy for your children to drink water that has cancer drugs and goodness knows what else in?"

Yes. To the best of my knowledge, there are no cancer-battling drugs in the UK's water system. In fact as far as I know, most testing shows that tap water is fairly similar to bottled water in content. I don't have a scientific background, though, so could be wrong on that count.

"I hope you don't ever drink wine that has been shipped in from overseas...":

Well, I occasionally do but I'm glad to report that the amount of wine my family consumes is a very very tiny proportion of the amount of water we consume so I'm not sure that's a valid concern.

"...or eat fruit and vege flown in from African countries."

I try to mainly buy veg which are in season and produced in the UK. Not always, but usually.

OrmIrian · 17/06/2008 13:38

I don't buy water in bottles. I have too many other things I need to spend money on and I have to pay water rates so why waste more. Our tap water is OK.

wannaBe · 17/06/2008 13:46

this craze of drinking only bottled water is something that's only really taken off in the past 10 years or so. How ever did people manage before then? When all they had was tap water?

Imo it's just a fad, people drink bottled water because it's the done thing. Before bottled water became so popular people drank water out of the tap and there was no difference.

thelittlestbadger · 17/06/2008 13:51

People who feel really strongly about only drinking bottled wter should track down that Coca Cola release which turned out to be premium quality tap water from Sidcup. Worth spending extra money on that I'd say...
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3523303.stm

Blandmum · 17/06/2008 13:54

Water is 'cleaned up'. However this is done by running it through stones and sand, and then making sure that it is free from contamination.

And do you know what? Mineral water is purified by running through stones and sand!

I filter ours, tasts fine, wastes far less rosources, CO2 foot print and money!

silverfrog · 17/06/2008 13:59

MB, I am not disagreeing with the use of tap water. We filter our water too, and rarely buy bottled (usually only on days out, and then only when I have forgotten to bring from home)

I only asked because there was a lot of "drink the tap water, it is fine" on this thread, and imo it is not necessarily fine. You do get a lot of people recommending filtering water - if the tap water is so fine, why would it need filtering?

It does remain a better option (carbon footprint and money wise) than bottled water, but I am not necessarily convinced that it is totally free from things (hormones, drugs traces, chlorine/fluoride levels) that I would rather not consume.

TheSweetLittleBunny · 17/06/2008 14:02

I used to buy bottled water. But when I think that some people have to walk for miles to get drinking water, that quite frankly I would not even use to water my tomatoes, I stopped. We have perfectly clean water delivered to our house. We are luckier than most.

Bottled water is a marketing ploy and for those who say that it is more pure than tap, they are wrong. Does anyone remember a couple of years back when Perrier had to take all their water off the shelves because it was contaminated? Also, bottled water contains more sulphites and traces of metals than tap water.

Let's get this into perspective, if tap water was so bad, there'd be lots of people getting sick and dying from drinking it would there not?

Uriel · 17/06/2008 14:05

VVVQV - sorry, went out.

No, the sump in your garden. Do you need a lot of room?

misdee · 17/06/2008 14:06

we live i na v hard water area. but i think tap water taste fine. i buy bottled water when out and about and in need of a drink, but ask for tap water when eating out.

expatinscotland · 17/06/2008 14:08

Am in Scotland as well.

The water here is fine and I am glad because couldn't be doing with lugging heavy bottles of water about.

For milk thankfully there is a dairy farmer nearby who supplies it in glass bottles and we get to see his coos on the road when we pass .

Tortington · 17/06/2008 14:13

i rarely buy it

just call me the yellowy green godess

Blandmum · 17/06/2008 14:14

I filter it to remove the taste of the chlorine, which makes it safe (the chlorine that is, not the filtering)

If filtering for a taste preference, not for any hygiene reasons.

If anyone is worried and wants to be 100% safe all they need to do is to boil the water, evaporate it, and allow it to condense, You will be left with pure H2O. Waste of time and energy though

ScottishMummy · 17/06/2008 14:21

not all tap water is fine.some areas it is disgusting. iuse a water filter and buy bottled water

Ryobi · 17/06/2008 14:22

if anyone has a soda stream amchine they dont want I am more than happy to take it off your hands

AtheneNoctua · 17/06/2008 14:33

But, what about the water shortage in London? Maybe they should fix their pipes before they encourage people to use more water from them.

Besides Evian tastes better. WAY better.

stillwaiting · 17/06/2008 14:42

My tap water is foul. I drink filtered water at home and bottled when I'm out. Other people swig bottles of coke etc when they are out so why shouldn't I drink a bottle of water. You can't ask for filtered water in a restaurant and until you can, I'll be drinking bottled.

katebee · 17/06/2008 15:04

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure I've read that there are gender bending chemicals and other nasties in the water supply which I find a bit worrying.

It is also true that there have been reports of chemicals from plastic bottles etc. leaking out.

It is sometimes hard to know what type of water is safest to drink. As far as taste goes our tap water tastes horrid and bottled water tastes better. Surely in order to make tap water drinkable they have to add all sorts of chemicals etc to it?

If one drinks a UK bottled water the carbon issue is no worse than buying fizzy or other drinks.

I expect my carbon footprint is lower than that of many of the smug tap drinking posters on this thread as I have not taken a flight for 7 years, we only have one car and try to walk or cycle for short distances. I do try to buy food that is in season, organic and locally produced so I find it a bit much to be demonised for buying the odd bottle of still water.

Nevertheless I would prefer to reduce my carbon footprint further so I will look into filtering and see if there is anyway I can make our tap water more drinkable.

amicissima · 17/06/2008 15:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

chisigirl · 17/06/2008 15:39

"...smug tap water drinking posters".... oops, guilty as charged. That's the slippery slope of mumsnet, I think! I do try not be quite as smug in RL, promise! Bottled water is just a bug bear of mine.

AtheneNoctua · 17/06/2008 15:52

The problem is clearly not the water supply, but the pipes that are used to transport it. We could have an ocean in London, but the pipes still couldn't take the throughput.

Last burst watermain I saw was in Ealing and it stopped traffic on the Chiswick round about for three days about a week ago.

DiscoDizzy · 17/06/2008 15:53

I don't like bottled water. We have small bottles and refill them with tap water and put them in the fridge.