BS: Bottled water versus Tap water

Subject: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: GUEST,Joy Bringer
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 04:29 PM

This morning on breakfast television a presenter poured a 500ml bottle of volcanic natural water costing £25 into one jug, and filled the other jug with tap water and put two experts to the taste test. Both said the tap water was the expensive one !

Bottled water is nothing more than a fashion accessory or a hyped up con health product for some wannabe snob.

Several investigations by a variety of experts have found little or no difference in tap water and natural spring water. I find it so so funny to see these silly people pay £25.00 for a bottle of bloody water. Price snobbery at it's finest.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 04:36 PM

if you believe that people are paying £25.00 for 500ml of bottled water you will believe anything ...

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 04:51 PM

When bottled water started appearing in supermarkets about 20 years ago I thought that it was some kind of joke. But no, people bought it, by the millions of litres - silly people!

Now my local nature reserve is knee-deep in empty, plastic water bottles - silly, messy, selfish asshole people!

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 04:54 PM

The tap water fad is a fraud perpetrated by the modern snake oil salesmen, who also sell all sorts of 'herbal' crap as medicine.
A sucker is born every minute, as they used to say.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: GUEST,Joy Bringer
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 04:55 PM

Claridge's in London sell l'eau at £50 a litre, there are more expensive ones than that ! Check the net if you don't believe me.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 04:57 PM

Of course you know I meant 'bottled water.' The whole thing gets me so upset that I can't think straight. Just poured a single malt to calm myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: GUEST,Joy Bringer
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:00 PM

Enjoy it Q, it's cheaper than water and my bloody heating oil too !
Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:09 PM

I dislike the present trend of being coerced into buying bottled water with the promise that for every litre I buy, the company will give 10litres to a village in Africa, enough for one person for 5 days if they don't want to wash, clean, feed animals or water plants.

I admit to buying bottled water but only on an occasional basis. I blatantly disregard the warning on the side of the bottle and refil it frequently from the tap, which is as good as the original contents. And I only do that because a) I can't find my canteen and b) I like the sippy spouts with closable lids. I use a bottle til the lid drops off and then I recycle it.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: GUEST,Joy Bringer
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:23 PM

Liz, the ones cyclists use are cheap, I bought one from a cycle store some years back and it's still going strong.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:32 PM

I've had trouble washing them.... at least with my bottled water bottle I know that it's going to be replaced sooner or later and isn't likely to have smoothies put in it and left to ferment.

When my nice plastic sippy spout bottle started giving me green water, I knew it was time to change it.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: lady penelope
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:33 PM

I much prefer London tap water to the bottled stuff. Quite a lot of the bottled stuff tastes vile!

I have one of them metal screw top bottles, but sometimes, if I haven't taken it with me, I'll buy a bottle of water, but only because we no longer have drinking fountains and landlords in pubs get the hump if you ask them for tap water.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:35 PM

Nothing wrong with water in a bottle, and it can be very convenient. Just so long as you fill the bottle from the tap.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: PoppaGator
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:36 PM

I have long regarded bottled-water users as fashion victims with more money than sense. Now that it as been pointed out to most of us that the glut of plastic bottles produced by this craze is an ecological threat, I have even lower regard for them.

The bottles are, of course, recyclable, but that doesn't mean that many of them ever actually get recycled. Most go into regular trash receptacles and then to landfills.

Not that I believe tap water to be perfectly OK. Over the years, I've bought plenty of 5-gallon bottles of spring and/or filtered water to use with a standard dispenser, and currently drink and cook only with water that has been run through the filtration system built into my refigerator's icemaker.

But there's no way in hell I'll pay the price of a soft drink ~ which is overpriced enough, but which at least contains some food value and flavoring in addition to H20 ~ for a bottle of "designer water."

And also: about those water bottles with the nifty caps, which can of course be refilled over and over with tap water or home-filtered water ~ I've never known one to wear out. I lose 'em first.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:51 PM

From: lady penelope - PM
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:33 PM

I much prefer London tap water to the bottled stuff. Quite a lot of the bottled stuff tastes vile!

---

London is a big place and I would imagine that the quality of the tap water will vary dramatically depending on the locality.

The most disgusting drink I have ever tasted was a glass of tap water in Beckenham, but that was back in the eighties, maybe things have improved since then.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 05:52 PM

There's tap water, and then there's tap water. In my home town, the tap water started furring up the kettle from the first boil. You had to use twice as much soap as elsewhere.
Where I live now, tap water will kill tropical fish if you put them in before the chlorine gas has seeped out of it, and even goldfish aren't happy. You run the bath, and the smell catches your throat.
After a couple of hours standing, it is pure enough to put in a car battery.

We use a water filter with an activated charcoal element in it, just to be a little safer. And because I'm not waiting a couple of hours for a drink.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 06:11 PM

I have to admit that my bottled water carbon footprint is not something to be proud of, but when I am thirsty I can only drink carbonated ( sparkling ) water, which I have yet to find in any tap ...

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 06:12 PM

High organic matter content gives a bad taste to water, which is intensified by the chlorine. Cadiz, Spain, used to be famous for its foul-tasting water, but the same problem affects water in many low-lying areas where decayed organic matter is abundant in surface waters.

The newer treatment plants pretty well take care of the taste problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 06:29 PM

We have bottled water at home, in our 72-hour kit. Periodically we use some and replace it with new. The "old" bottles are recycled and the "new" ones used until the next time -- they're refilled with tap water.

Consider the label on a bottle of, say, Desani. You'll find it's made from tap (not spring) water, filtered and ozonated, by the Coca-Cola company. In the US, spring water must state such and give the location of the spring, bottled water made from city water sources isn't able to state such.

We have hard water here, but Desani and other tell me minerals are good for me...of course, we do have a water softener at home for laundry and stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: artbrooks
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 06:52 PM

There was some discussion a few years ago of bottling water from New Orleans' municipal water supply and selling it as Liquid Jazz or some such thing. The idea died when they figured out how many times that water had been previously drunk upstream.

We use a filtered pitcher for our tap water, since our water comes from a municipal well with a pretty high arsenic level, and our walking-around water is carried in one of those bicycling bottles. We must have a hundred of them...I think they breed in the darkness of the garage.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 06:56 PM

Yeah, we use those sorts of bottles too. I can carry two on the butt pack I use for general hiking and more on or in one of my backpacks.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water verse Tap water
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 07:53 PM

"Liquid Jazz"

Well, it sounds appropriate, taking into account the original meaning of the word Jazz...

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 10:03 PM

I have to drink bottled distilled water because I'm allergic to fluoride and chlorine (I have to rinse off with it, too).

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 12:18 AM

What, no salt with your Margarita?- or Tequila straight?

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: CarolC
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 12:48 AM

I can have some table salt (but not iodized salt, which has dextrose in it made from corn, which I am also allergic to). I don't know what allows me to have chlorine in the form of sodium chloride but not to drink water with chlorine or flouride in it. But if I drink water with those things in it, I get sick. If I wash in either of them without rinsing with distilled water afterwards, I get horrible rashes and my skin cracks open. I have to rinse off with distilled water after waking in ocean water, too, so maybe that's why. Maybe it's the concentration of chlorine that's the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 01:24 AM

It might be the chloro-amines...

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 01:45 AM

Artbrooks, someone once estimated that the water in the carafes in the House of Lords, England's upper parliament, had been through 12 sets of kidneys before it got there.
Most of them not human.
No idea how they worked it out.


Of course, there is no 'new' water. The same water has been around since the earth cooled, recycling over and over, so the water has been through BILLIONS of kidneys.
Hope this is a comfort to someone.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 01:52 AM

We have our own artesian well with water of spring water quality. When city folks come for a visit, they usually bring a few empty jugs to fill and take home with them. I'm so spoiled by our water that I can't abide unfiltered tap water from most municipal systems. When we travel, we always take a few gallons of our own water along. On the rare occasion that we run out, we will buy water, but it's usually store-brand water in gallon jugs, not name-brand stuff in individual bottles.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 04:28 AM

Like Murray Mac., I drink carbonated water.

Our local (Northants) tap water tastes nasty to me. I served my apprenticeship on Southport tap water, among the hardest water in the country. Like MMc, I have yet to come across fizzy water from the tap.

My colleagues buy still bottled water. When the bottle is empty, I fill it with tap water that's been through one of they carbon filters. Always I label this bottle "Tap Watter" [sic].

There was a smart-arse placement student who queried "Watter ? Watter ?!".

I took great delight in saying "Aye, lad, tha knows - t' wet stuff as comes from t' tap".

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Newport Boy
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 04:29 AM

The River Severn rises in mid-Wales and flows into England towards Shrewsbury, where water is extracted for drinking. In return, the Severn receives the treated effluent from the town's sewage plants. (I was pleased to see news of a £14m scheme to improve the quality of the effluent.)

The process is repeated at Bridgnorth, Stourport and Worcester until the Severn reaches Gloucester, where the system is varied. The water is pumped up from the river into Gloucester Docks and then flows along the Sharpness Canal to Purton, where it is extracted, treated and pumped into storage reservoirs for our taps.

The water is quite palatable, although there is a distinct chemical aroma when the cold tap is first opened in the morning.

For drinking, we keep a litre jug of water in the fridge - this eliminates the chemical aroma. We don't use bottled water. Seeing the environmental damage in Peru and Nepal from use of bottled water by tourists finally convinced us that plastic bottles are an environmental disaster.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 04:35 AM

London may indeed have hard water, but most of it comes from Oxfordshire so it's not their fault.

I grew up in Dorset where the water gets filtered through chalk and limestone. The difference in soap use and the state of my hair was incredible when I first moved to London.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 04:44 AM

"The bottles are, of course, recyclable, but that doesn't mean that many of them ever actually get recycled. Most go into regular trash receptacles and then to landfills."

Oh, if only that were true. Around here the selfish, fashion-victim, jogging cretins just drop them on the ground, or throw them in the hedge, as soon as they're empty.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Paul Burke
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 06:16 AM

Not quite true that all water has been around from the beginning. A lot of radioactive decay involves emission of neutrons, and those that aren't absorbed by another nucleus decay (half- life about a quarter of an hour) into a proton and an electron- in other words, hydrogen. And the earth has almost certainly acquired water from comet strikes, perhaps as recently as 1908 at Tunguska.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 06:51 AM

I only buy bottled water when I'm not at home and am thirsty.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 07:54 AM

As a keen cyclist I have quite a few water bottles of various shapes and sizes. I find the best way to clean them is to drop half a steradent tablet in them. ( Tablets for cleaning false teeth )

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: MMario
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 08:42 AM

There was a big hullabaloo around here because it was found that one of the vendors of "spring water" in bottles was filling their containers from the municipal supply. However, they were fully justified as their municipal water *is* spring fed. It just had a little longer trip through pipes to get to the bottles.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: PoppaGator
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 12:11 PM

New Orleans city water is pretty OK, certainly much better than it used to be. It comes from the ass-end of the Mississippi/Missouri/Ohio River system, North America's greatest naturally-occurring sewer, so the local treatment plants have their work cut out for them. There have been several periodic upgrades of our water-treatment technology in recent years; they seem to try and keep up with the state of the art

I remember the short-lived proposal to bottle our tap water, but I don't remember anyone suggesting the brand-name "Liquid Jazz," which does suggest a fairly disgusting subtext. (For that matter, I don't remember any specific name suggestion.) Recent testing by the EPA (or perhaps some other authority) had just given New Orleans city water an excellent grade, at a time when general public opinion still regarded it as dangerously nasty. The water had been pretty bad in the recent past, the quality very much needed improvement, but when the improvements had been achieved, little public recognition was forthcoming.

The proposal to bottle and sell our tap water was really nothing more than a PR trick to direct attendtion to its significantly improved quality, and it worked quite well for that purpose. I don't believe there was ever any serious intent to actually set up a bottling plant.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 06:57 PM

Or you could pay somebody to put the tap-water in the bottle for you:-

Coca Cola admits that Dasani is nothing but tap-water

Ross

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: artbrooks
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 07:24 PM

I stand corrected, PG...but it still makes for a good story.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: open mike
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 09:51 PM

i have a water filter business.
and have recently pushed an ad
campaign aimed at fellow fire
victims...as streams and wells
have been contaminated with ash
and fire retardant and other stuff.

i have been drinking water from the
stream for many years and used these
solid carbon block filters to remove
impurities, giardia cysts, and etc.

i have seen wter bottled in bio-degradable
bottles (made formcorn starch or such) but
wonder wha their shelf life is....

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Jul 08 - 11:41 PM

All bottles and cans are recycled in Alberta; pop and beer cans, liquor bottles and water bottles are worth five cents to Scouts or whoever takes them in to depots.
Recycling

Water here is very hard (calcium and magnesium carbonates from glacial and river sources) but taste is good. Have to buy distilled water for steam irons, etc., and furnace humidifiers have to have elements replaced frequently or the deposit dissolved with vinegar, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Becca72
Date: 26 Jul 08 - 07:15 AM

I buy Poland Springs bottled water because I prefer it. I don't like the chemicals added to tap water and think PS tastes better. They use recycled material to make their bottles, and here in Maine almost all bottles and cans have a deposit and are thus "returnable", the exception being plastic milk jugs.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: MarkS
Date: 26 Jul 08 - 09:36 AM

The tap water our town is really great for carbon remover. We put in a filter and use the filtered water for drinking and cooking. So far really happy with the results. Now, we cannot tell the difference between our filtered tap water and the expensive stuff in a bottle.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Jul 08 - 12:04 PM

I live in kansas city. Our water passes over 100,000 tests every year. In a recent contest, it was among the top contenders for best-tasting water in the world. It is quite hard, but the waterworks softens it some for us.

When I drink bottled water, I often find it sweet. I read in Consumer Reports that the sweetness comes from the plastic bottle, which is leaching components into the water. Not a comforting thought. 'Oaky' tastes probably come from the pallets on which the water was been sitting, possibly for months, in a warehouse. Here in the Midwest, I can drive by old brick warehouses which have no air conditioning and wonder if bottles of water are sitting there at 90 to 100 degrees.

So, which kind to drink? It's a no-brainer where I live.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Jul 08 - 06:48 PM

"London may indeed have hard water..."

Hard water tastes best to me, perhaps because I've mostly lived in hard water regions. Going on holiday to Devon the local, soft, water is lovely for washing, true enough, but I don't like the taste one little bit. Not that I drink much water on holiday.
...................................

Chlorine added to water isn't the same as salt in water, kat - the chlorine in salt is locked up so it doesn't have that chlorine taste and effects. Chlorine on its own is much dodgier stuff - and the same is true of Sodium - put them together as table salt, and it's a different story.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 07:29 PM

Lead contamination from in new plumbing fixtures:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38190/title/Lead-free%3F_Faucets_are_anything_but

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 09:05 PM

Tap water, filtered and poured into re-usuable portable bottles. Our tap is rural, not city, so no antiflocculants. :~) Has tested OK for all the scaries, too.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 10:10 PM

Worst stuff in my tap water is too much calcium carbonate. Otherwise it tests fine and tastes okay too.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Aqua
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 02:10 AM

I actually get sick from bottled water. It seems to act like a laxative - I call it "importing Montezuma's revenge". I'm fine drinking tap water or distilled water. I've never met anyone else who has this problem, and can't find anything on the web about it. I'm guessing it may be some kind of allergy or immune system reaction. Has anyone else had this problem, or heard of it?

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Aqua
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 02:12 AM

P.S. The brand of bottled water doesn't seem to make a difference.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 02:28 AM

The water in Juneau, Alaska, comes down from the mountains and is achingly cold year 'round. As for taste, it is so good that if it were solid I'd eat it with a spoon. (That sounds gross.)

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Darowyn
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 03:28 AM

Living in the town, I can bottle Malvern water free from a number of public wells- which are actually springs, but are called wells.
There is nothing in it- no minerals, no pollution. People come from miles around with trailers full of plastic containers.
On the other side of the Malvern Hills, Coca Cola bottle and sell thousands of gallons of it.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,wanderer
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 09:33 AM

Bottled water is definatley one big con in my oppinon.

And here's a thought; they say the water we drink today is the same that the dinosuars drank (due to the water cycle effect), so with the mass production of bottled water now a days i.e. gallons of it being bottled and stored in shops and supermarkets at any one time. Surely then this is having an effect on the water cycle. And what about the water that is carried in the space shuttle and inthe space station and being dumped in space, surely this has an effect.

Also how come bottled water has a sell by date? (don't take this too seriously)

DISCUSS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 10:04 AM

I think water (and urine) in space shuttles is recycled.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: EBarnacle
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 01:17 PM

Ebbie, it certainly is. At 64 lb per cubic foot, it is too heavy a payload just to use once and throw away.

If anyone wishes to get serious about water taste and purity, take a look at http://www.livingairwater.net/ go the the videos button, view them and then contact me. My company just signed on as their marketing division and we are looking for representatives. It's straight commission and is not an MLM system.

Enjoy the DeCaprio video.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 05:12 PM

Youtube: Lewis Black on water.

Beware.... he drops F-bombs. Lots of `em. But funny (and mostly true).

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 05:41 PM

So what about all the stuff from the plastic bottle that leaches into the contents of that bottle then? It can't be good for water, being kept airless and confined in a bottle made basically, of chemicals...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 06:08 PM

Those chemicals mimic estrogen and have a feminizing effect. Explains the metrosexuals.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Ed T
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 06:13 PM

God may be against bottled water:

http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/060907water

Ansd so are some political folks:

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/532432

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: gnu
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 06:17 PM

Sorry if this was posted before.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 06:19 PM

Just above, gnu. Different link, same bit.


p.s. Mine's better   ;P

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: gnu
Date: 27 Nov 08 - 06:03 AM

Oh my! WAY too much cold medicine!

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: kendall
Date: 27 Nov 08 - 07:50 AM

I never buy bottled water. It's a scam.
We have well water with a water treatment system and it is excellent.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: gnu
Date: 27 Nov 08 - 04:07 PM

Scam and a half. Five or six years ago here, we had "boil order" in midsummer. Might have been sommat to do with the four dead pigs tied to a tree so they would be in shallow water in the water resevoir.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Lox
Date: 27 Nov 08 - 08:26 PM

Hey - I haven't looked for a web page confirming it, but I seem to remember reading a report about Air canisters for sale in Japan.

Busy day? Been breathing shit? need to recuperate? pop in to one of our "air canister" vending outlets and take a deep breath of the clean stuff ... aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh..............

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: kendall
Date: 28 Nov 08 - 09:25 AM

Years ago someone got the idea to can Maine air for people who lived in the mid west.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: r.padgett
Date: 29 Nov 08 - 04:11 AM

buy a bottle and fill it from the tap!

I am already on record that pubs must serve free water from the tap on request ~ no not as a cheap alternative but where a drinker of alcohol feels the need!

Bottled water as an alternative to this only is not to my mind acceptable

It is written into Scottish Law that tap water is to be served as needed

Bottled water is a luxury item for those who wish to purchase it for its content and taste, no other reason

I am also very anti Coca Cola prices and see no reason for this to be charged the same as a pint of beer

£1 for a glass of diet Coke (I think about 200/300ml) is a rip off!

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Nov 08 - 05:41 AM

When I lived in Midland Texas, we had to buy bottled water. Water from the tap had oily taste, look and feel. Like baby oil. It was disgusting.

My aunt lives on Chickahominy River in Virginia and has Artesian well. Best water I have ever tasted in the US or UK.

Living in South Eastern UK and we had to get a filter jug. It is ok, but not the best. I refill old water bottles to carry around with me. I did have a nice aluminum hiker's bottle, but it got a funny flavour in it that I could not dispel.

What I want to know is what happens to all the empties after marathons, where water is supplied in bottles?

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: r.padgett
Date: 29 Nov 08 - 06:17 AM

As the bottles are made from oil they should be burnt/incinerated for power!

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Nov 08 - 10:43 PM

Somewhere in the first week after we crawled out of the primordial swamps(or wherever it was that we came from) it occurred to somebody that it'd be very useful if we had a container of some sort to carry water around in--undoubtably, this person was elevated to the level of a deity, and stayed there until someone came up with the idea of a lid--

Given that, those of you who have a problem with people carrying water around in bottles, and drinking it where and when they like, are probably at least a half million years too late to change the trend.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: goatfell
Date: 30 Nov 08 - 09:58 AM

I can't understand why people buy bottled water which is bad for you, full of toxians and poisans (spelling) and it cost more than the water that comes out of your tap, which is cheaper.

But if people want to buy bottled(tap) water than the stuff that comes out of your tap then let them.

stupid daft eejits.

I drink water out of the tap because it is more safe for you than that shit called bottled water and cheaper too.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Betsy at Work
Date: 01 Dec 08 - 07:20 AM

Good auld Padge .
Fill a bottle from the tap - put it in the fridge - it keeps it cool.
Padge sez .."As the bottles are made from oil they should be burnt/incinerated for power!"
Why stop there ? burn the greasy gits which advertise and distribute the stuff.
My wife infuriates me by buying Bottled water - what a F8cking scam.
She can't be convinced.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Bert
Date: 01 Dec 08 - 06:45 PM

We got fed up with the excessive amount of chlorine in our tap water so I installed a filter under the sink.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: annamill
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 12:24 PM

Oh stop! You haven't tasted my tap water!! We have moved to a little town called Julian in California. We live up on a mountain and our water comes from a well. Yuch!! My landlord has put in two filters. One for the tap water under the house and another near my washer so my clothes won't turn BROWN!

It may be a result of the bad fires we had up here, but I've heard from others that this water has been yuchy for some time. We buy approx. 10 bottles of water a week at 25 cents a bottle. We use it for food, making drinks, drinking, and cooking. Anything that might be ingested. The water is safe according to the testing bureau but I wouldn't think of drinking it. Yuck!

It took awhile to get used to washing my dishes in it. They come out clean and so do my clothes. The water has a very definite smell of sulfer and metal, but this dissipates quickly. Again, yuch. So, don't think everyone is an edjt for drinking bottled water.

BTW, I love Perier(sp) water. Refreshing. I also love the tap water in Manhatten. Yummy! New York Times rated it as the best tasting tap water in America. Of course, they may be biased! ;-)

I'm going to get a water dispenser, that also makes the water cold, very soon. They cost $100.

Love, Annamill (sorry for rambling)

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Joe_F
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 08:17 PM

I'm very fond of water,
I drink it noon and night;
No mother's son or daughter
Hath therein more delight.

At luncheon, too, I drink it,
And strength it seems to bring:
When really good, I think it
A liquor for a king.
But I forgot to mention --
'Tis best to be sincere --
I use an old invention
That makes it into Beer.         -- Lord Neaves

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 10:01 PM

Safe drinking water, no matter what you think it tastes like, is probably one of the two top public health devices in the last 200 years. John Snow and his work naming the Broad Street Pump in 1854 is one of the least know, and most important, medical advances in history.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 03:10 AM

The whole point of the 'naming the Broad Street Pump' is that it was identified as the source of a cholera epidemic that was sweeping that part of London at the time. Snow had the bright idea of charting where the cases were and investigating the area. It turned out that all the victims had drawn their water from that particular street pump (no water piped into houses then, it was gathered at a street pump or well, and bucketed home) and that was the source of the infection. He had the pump disabled and the cases of cholera stopped almost overnight.

Thus was born the ideas of water borne infections and forensic medicine.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Paul Burke
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 04:43 AM

It says a lot when we can all assume that the public supply is safe to drink, even if sometimes unpalatable. In most parts of the world you are taking at least a risk when you drink unboiled or unsterilised water- note the current cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, where even hospitals are without a clean supply. That sadly doesn't mean that bottled water is necessarily a safer option even there- the bottling plant (which will be local, water's hellish expensive to transport) might have poor standards of sterilisation and hygiene.

I don't know what allows me to have chlorine in the form of sodium chloride but not to drink water with chlorine or flouride in it.

That's because the sodium has taken the sting out of the chlorine, and vice- versa. the chlorine in tapwater is there to kill the bugs, so they leave the sting in it. They never put fluorine in tapwater, it's horrible stuff to handle. They put a fluoride (usually sodium fluoride) in some drinking water supplies as a preventative against dental decay.

Water distilled in a properly maintained plant is safe- though probably pretty tasteless- and it's only really feasible where copious solar or geothermal energy is available.

I'm lucky- our own local supply (from the River Derwent, it's only been through 3 or 4 small-to-medium towns before it gets to us) usually tastes really good. It's also soft as a baby's bum.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: GUEST,Preston
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 07:07 AM

I live in the North of Spain (six months of the year) and noticed the locals carry these massive containers of bottled water from the shops daily. I was told by the company I bought my housefrom the water was fine to drink.

Well after the third day there the contents of my stomach were leaving me like black thread, so believe me, when in Europe, BUY BOTTLED WATER !

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: maeve
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 07:34 AM

"Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: kendall - PM
Date: 28 Nov 08 - 09:25 AM

Years ago someone got the idea to can Maine air for people who lived in the mid west."
___________________

Oh Kendall... When I was a little girl camping in Maine with my family I bought one of those cans. Months later back home in New Hampshire, I was so disappointed to discover that the can didn't really contain the wonderful Maine ocean air I missed.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 08:45 AM

Kendall, an old lady out here got word just last week that her sister was dying in a hospital in Portland, Maine. She jumped on her bicycle and was at her sister's side in just a day and half. The woman was dying, breathing her last, when her sister took one of the tires off the bike and let out the Idaho air. The potential corpse took two big sniffs, jumped out of bed, and ran out of the hospital. She ran all the way back here and beat her bicycling sister by three hours, but of course her sister had to stop and refill the tire and the Portland air slowed her down considerable. Last I heard the sister from the hospital had been arrested for indecent exposure (you know those hospital gowns) and was having herself QUITE a time with the male prisoners up at the County Jail.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 09:10 AM

I ordered an under-sink fluoride filter a few days ago. It also has a carbon filter for VOCs, pesticides, and other nasties, a six stage filter for other things (including clorine), and a pre-filter for sediment. Our hope is that I won't have to continue to drink distilled water. We'll see (fingers crossed).

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: goatfell
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 02:19 PM

mind you in Western Australia, I recomend bottled water because their tap water is shit, it taste really horrible, it's brackish.

and not only that it's taste well to me when I go there warm.

so when visting Western Austrlia use bottled water

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: goatfell
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 02:21 PM

mind you the Western Austrlian Goverment doesn't want to spen any money on a facotry than can turn Salt water into fresh water, but thne the Western Austrlian Goverment doesn't want to spen money anyway, and will turn Perth and the surrounding area into a backwater, and the people there are allowing this to happpen.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Bert
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 02:24 PM

...They put a fluoride (usually sodium fluoride) in some drinking water supplies as a preventative against dental decay...

It also makes your teeth yellow and brittle but they don't tell you that.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: goatfell
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 02:41 PM

I would rather have that than have diabeatis, cancer and other illness that you get from bottled water but they don't tell you that, and as for fluoride in water, it doesn't make you teeth brittle and turns your teeth yellow, not brushing them does that.
mind you I could be wrong but I said might

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: goatfell
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 02:43 PM

i drink lots of tap water here in Scotland and there is nothing wrong with my teeth, they are not brittle or yellow

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 11:43 PM

Some people are allergic to fluoride (like me for instance) and become very sick when they (we) drink it. And some of us also experience very painful skin problems when we use water with fluoride in it to wash ourselves.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: annamill
Date: 04 Dec 08 - 12:55 AM

The water I buy goes thru a process called "reverse osmosis", whatever that is, contains no floride, has "some" minerals left in for taste. It's called Ramona water from a little town called Ramona ;-) It's pretty good. Much better than my tap water, yuch!

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: goatfell
Date: 04 Dec 08 - 05:13 AM

Bottled water is 500% dearer than tap water which cost you almost nothhing, I was in London and this man bought a small bottle of water and it cost £12, how much does tap water cost eh!

and Highland spring water is a facotry near Striling, just off the motorway that leads to Striling.

Tap water in fridge maybe?

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Dec 08 - 05:59 PM

Here's a new twist...

I was in a Chinese restaurant last night which was so obviously getting its profits from the bar - a bottle of Kumala Chardonnay (priced at less than £5.50 a bottle in most shops) was on sale for £14.80. Anyhoo... I decided I'd stick with water which is when I found on the menu, a little note saying that the restaurant did not serve tap water*. I could buy a glass of "purified water" for 50p or a large jug of it for £1.50. I chose to have a jug of water and watched as the barman filled a jug FROM THE TAP OVER THE SINK behind the bar.

Talk about a bloody cheek!


LTS

*NB, in the UK, licensed premises, licensed to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises must, by law provide free tap water.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Dec 08 - 09:29 PM

A place like that, I would have no problem bringing my own bottle of water and drinking that instead of their water.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: r.padgett
Date: 05 Dec 08 - 03:54 AM

*NB, in the UK, licensed premises, licensed to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises must, by law provide free tap water.
_______________________________________________________________
Hurray, I had missed this very important piece of information

Some who visited a Chinese restaurant with me last Easter will no doubt remember being charged for Tap Water.

We did not want alcohol as we had clearly had enough of it!

Curry to my uneducated palate needs water

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 21 Apr 17 - 10:42 PM

What do you think of Saskia water

https://uk.openfoodfacts.org/product/20030995/natural-mineral-water-sparkling-saskia

What do you do with the empties?

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Apr 17 - 11:55 PM

We have a 250-foot well here in the Sierra Foothills. Our water tastes so good, that it's hard for me to enjoy water anywhere else. I always assumed our water was safe, but I decided to have it tested a couple of years ago. Because this is a gold mining area, the testing firm used a "mine panel" of tests to make sure we didn't have any of the dangerous chemicals likely to be found in this area. We came out with great scores on all tests. I was just a bit disconcerted to learn that they test only for substances likely to be a problem, and not for everything. But hey, it tastes terrific. I've never found bottled water that tastes as good.
Starbucks had been bottling water near here, but they had to shut down the plant during our recent drought.

Come stop by and have a drink.

-Joe in Applegate, California-

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Thompson
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 02:07 AM

We drink Saski, Lidl's fizzy water. We are bad people. But it's delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 03:31 AM

Our tap water here in Norfolk UK is exceptionally 'hard' and bungs up the dishwasher, washing machine and kettle with scale. But it tastes quite all right, and I've drunk it for forty years. Glasgow tap water was 'soft' and silky, lovely stuff.

I've never had bottled water. It's very expensive and I can't see the point. If one wants to take some water out on a trip (and I find this a bit mad. People go around clutching their water as if they're in the Sahara desert!), why not fill a bottle from the tap?
I'm really old, and still have all my teeth. They're not yellow, they're nice and white. And I don't have osteoporosis. Perhaps the calcium in the water has helped keep my bones strong?
(Although that could be down to the gallons of milk and oodles of cream I get through, not to mention the mountains of butter on all the crumpets!)

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 04:00 AM

N Norfolk is the same as were you are - very hard. And I think the soft water from Llyn Dulyn (supplied the Llandudno, N Wales area) was much nicer.

My mother has never liked its taste. We used to use a Brita jug filter but I fitted an under the sink filter about 2 years ago. I think at £15 for replacement carbon filter that lasts 6 months, it works out a bit cheaper than what she was doing with the jug filters and having the filtered water on its own tap is more convenient. Neither of these solutions address the hardness of the water but they do get rid of the (to mum) foul taste).

The last time we used bottled water followed a burst main last year. A neighbour went shopping and kindly gave us 2 x 5L bottles. While I guess one could maintain ones own supply of back up tap water, I'm glad the supermarkets stock it for this type of short term "emergency" but I don't think we have any other use for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 04:22 AM

I don't know if this has already been said but tap water in some areas in horrible. I wouldn't blame people from such areas buying bottled water, especially to make a good cup of tea.

The tap water in many places is just fine. When I worked in Huddersfield our new Managing Director (bit of a snob) asked me to procure water fountains and we bought water in. The water from the tap was far superior and just for cheek I filled a couple of the huge bottles with tap water. A good few people commented on the "improved" water from the fountains.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 04:39 AM

The only time I buy bottles of water is when I'm in the departure lounge. I won't drink alcohol on flights and the water guards against dehydration, which seems to creep up insidiously during flights. I can't understand the affectation that appears to oblige large numbers of people to lug plastic bottles around with them like comfort blankets.

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 05:42 AM

I've carried a water bottle for years - since before bottled water became fashionable - but then I don't drink tea or coffee & like to have a drink with me. If every time I wanted/needed a drink I had to go into a shop & buy juice or something else I'd go broke! Over the years I have bought bottled water but that was when I left my bottle at home.

Our local folk festivals are trying to go waste free (well, reduce waste as much as possible) by supplying reusable cups & bottles, & water filling places.

Last week at the National Folk Festival we even had had a commercial operator selling alkaline water - science is out on it's benefits, but some folks have money to spend & someone has to make a dollar ...

Next to the alkaline water filling place was a free water filling place, but there they were, rich?/foolish? folk paying something like $35 for the bottle & $5 per day for unlimited filling of said bottle while the rest of us just refilled whatever bottle or cup we had at whatever tap or filling place we found!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 05:45 AM

Is it just coincidence that one of the big names in bottled water 'Evian' is 'naive' spelt backwards?

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 06:21 AM

I always drink bottled water when in the Tropics. In Ghana, I hadn't remembered to get some at the airport before arriving late at night at my hotel in Accra, so I brushed my teeth from the tap like a twit before going to bed. The resulting health problems were quite spectacular, as I contracted Giardiasis (a gut parasite). My intestines were shot to pieces and my face went completely grey. It took two courses of strong antibiotics to shift it.
My husband is in Ivory Coast at the moment for the funeral of his dad, and my last words to him were, "Please please please don't drink the water! Get bottled stuff!" I hope he's doing as he was told!

Subject: RE: BS: Bottled water versus Tap water
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Apr 17 - 09:33 AM

Evian water is named after Évian-les-Bains, a locality in France but is still a very expensive way to get water!