Could tap water really safer than bottled?

Many people in the UK avoid drinking tap water due to health concerns. Water is treated before entering the plumbing system so in theory it should be safe, but people are concerned that their wellness may be compromised by drinking it, and so prefer a product that comes from a commercial source and choose to drink bottled water instead.

 

A recent university study, however, seems to show that your wellbeing is far more likely to be put at risk by drinking bottled water – exactly the opposite of what people who make the decision to buy are trying to achieve. The study showed that bottled water is much more likely to be contaminated and to be the source of an infection.

 

This is ironic, given the fact that when you compare bottled water and tap water, like for like, bottled water comes out as being 1,000 times more expensive. The safety tests that it is put through are also much less stringent than the tests that tap water has to undergo. Despite this, a survey suggests that people in Britain pay 1.5 billion pounds every year on bottled water, under the mistaken belief that it is better for them. This equates to each person drinking 33 litres of some form of bottled water each year, be that fizzy, mineral or so-called ‘purified’ tap water. One quarter of the people surveyed stated that they drink this amount of bottled water because they believe it is better for them.

 

Unfortunately, these consumers are failing to realise that whilst tap water must be checked daily for quality and have added chlorine to kill bacterial infections, bottled water only needs to be tested once per month (at source), and may stay in storage bottles for months before being opened, with no added chemicals to help kill off any bacteria.

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