Recently the City of New York is trying to persuade its people to give up bottled drinks and consume tap water instead to help protect the environment.

While it’s estimated that more then half of plastic bottles used for water are not recycled, and the production process contributes to global warming, here in the UK (and especially the capital) we seem to have a deep seated fear of our own tap water, but are our fears real or is our poor water quality just an urban myth?

It’s highly recognised a normal adult should drink between 2 and 3 litres of good clean water each day to help with hydration, filtration, alertness and energy.

The DWI (Drinking Water Inspectorate) says yes, all UK tap water is safe to drink. In blind taste tests, most people cannot tell the difference between chilled bottled water and chilled London tap water.

Professor Jeni Colbourne, Chief Inspector of Drinking Water said “The quality of drinking water in the region [Southern UK] is high but results in 2006 were not as good as last year - 99.95% of tap samples met the standards, down from 99.97% in 2005”.


Is it true that there may be drug residues in tap water?

Concerns have been expressed about residues in drinking water, and also endocrine disrupters. In high concentrations they have been shown to induce female characteristics in male animals.

In general, if one makes a worst case assumption that pharmaceuticals are excreted unchanged and recycled via tap water, the theoretical dose would be about 1 million times less than the pharmacologically active dose. The actual dose is much less than this because all sewage effluents are subject to intensive biological treatment before being discharged to watercourses.

Further biodegradation takes place in the rivers and reservoirs and treated sewage effluent has a minimal impact on overall water quality. Sophisticated treatment processes, such as ozone or activated carbon, used in the production of drinking water, further reduce the concentrations of chemical residues to insignificant levels. (Source www.dwi.gov.uk)

What about filtering tap water?

As long as you follow the manufactures instructions, refrigerate it and try not to store it for longer then 24 hours a filter for tap water can be of some benefit. Filters can reduce limescale, chlorine, aluminium and certain heavy metals (like copper and lead) along with certain pesticides. Organic impurities can be also reduced.

Bacteria will normally grow in tap water within a few days if it is kept bottled and at room temperature.

Our own test

Interestingly, the results of a blind test between chilled tap water and chilled bottle water around the Create office resulted in a staggering 75 per cent of people choosing tap water over bottled water for taste.

We were quite surprised by this.

Tap water does seem a sensible alternative to the CO2 footprint of refining, bottling, delivering, chilling, purchasing and disposing of bottled water. It can save the consumer hundreds of pounds a year and research suggests it tastes the same! Research also proves it won’t turn men into women and cloudiness is often only oxygen and takes a few moments to clear.

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