Personally, I've always had my doubts about bottled water. I don't mean from a purity perspective. After all, I'm sure the health-and-safety-o-meter at the Trading Standards Batcave would register a full scale deflection were some product to be sold which was harmful in any way, shape or form.

I never thought I'd say this about anything, but it's the principal I object to. Particularly in cases such as Dasani and Aquafina. They use tag-lines such as pure water, perfect taste' and enhanced with minerals'. Why not tell it like it is? The same water you've already paid for to get from your tap, just filtered a bit more'.

In the UK, and probably every other first-world country, we already pay, either through taxes or a metered supply, for clean, drinkable water delivered straight to the tap in your kitchen. Each country, or region, has their own set of drinking water standards which are largely derived from the World Heath Organisations Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality.

In brief, these guideline values are primarily achieved by deriving a tolerable daily intake of a given chemical substance. The tolerable daily intake is defined as the amount of a substance which can be ingested over a lifetime without any appreciable health risk. So, any claim that this filtered and bottled tap water could be better for you is misleading to say the least. Further, whatever they call it, be it reverse osmosis, ozonation or activated charcoal purification systems, it's basically filtration.

Mind you, it doesn't always work that way. When Coca-Cola were purifying' the tap water from Sidcup and selling it as Dasani, something went horribly wrong. The ozonation process resulted in the harmless bromide already present within the tap water undergoing oxidation to become the carcinogen bromate. And yes, the red phones went into meltdown at the Batcave. This, coupled with the media outcry that resulted from the revelation that it actually was bottled tap water, killed the Dasani brand in the UK market.

Well, that was the science bit, now the principal bit. I really don't like the thought of any, huge multi-national corporations profiteering from the taxes that I pay. If they really want to sell water that is much better for me than it was at source, why don't they come round to my house and collect and my waste water and raw sewage? They can clean it up to drinking water standards, bottle it then sell it with the tag-line bottled at source from a council house U-bend'. I know: not the same as pure water, perfect taste' or even bottled at source from a tap in Sidcup', but at least you would know they put the effort in. Especially after a night with a good curry, say a Madras.

Don't get me wrong, bottled water is very convenient, especially when you're on the go and you need something cold and refreshing. But, personally, I'd rather bottle it from my own tap, stick it in the fridge then take it with me the next day.

Learn more about this author, Gary Robertson.
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