Suckers?
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Suckers?
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IBYL --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=416 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom>By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Magazine
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->As reports of contamination in a top bottled water brand are investigated, Britain's biggest suppliers are reportedly preparing to launch a major new brand at under 24s. But why are we turning our backs on the tap?
With some 250 brands crowding the shelves, there's no shortage of choice for those who like to sip, gulp or swig their water from a designer source.
Would anyone notice another newcomer to the bottled water market? They surely will if the latest speculation in the industry is anything to go by.
French food giant Danone, which already owns one of Britain's top bottled water brands, Evian, is rumoured to be planning a major launch of a new water in the new year, aimed at under 24s.
While British shoppers have gushed in ever greater numbers to buy bottled water in recent years, they still represent a relative trickle compared to consumers on the continent.
Sales are projected to rise by 20% in the coming five years, proving this is one sector of that's far from saturated.
Even the latest in a string of health scares is, judging by previous examples, unlikely to have any lasting damage. The BBC has discovered some bottles of Volvic, which sells three million bottles sold a day, contained a potentially harmful chemical called naphthalene.
<!-- S IBOX --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD class=sibtbg>PRICE AND POPULARITY
Average daily cost per households for water - 68p
Average supermarket price for a two-litre bottle of Evian - 68p
52% of adults drink bottled water, compared to about90% in France Germany and Italy
Source: Water UK, Which?, TGI survey, Marketing magazine
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IBOX -->Danone, which owns the brand, says it is investigating the matter, but that it had appeared to be an isolated incident.
Last year Coca Cola withdrew its Dasani brand of bottled water after it was found to contain illegal levels of the chemical bromate, and it's 15 years since supermarkets cleared their shelves of Perrier after it was found to contain the chemical benzene.
Yet still bottled water is seen as the archetypal health drink.
This is partly down to a growing backlash against sugary soda drinks. But sceptics say the logic starts to tail off in light of the fact that tap water has never been of higher quality in the UK.
A quick comparison of the prices and one might deduce the bottled water firms have pulled off something close to modern-day alchemy. The average daily cost for an entire household's water - from the tap to the loo flush, and everything in between - is 68 pence, exactly the same as the typical supermarket price of a two-litre bottle of Evian.
At these prices, a family of four could expect to shell out almost £1,000 a year on bottled water if they were each drinking their recommended daily two-litre intake.
So why do millions of us choose to pay a huge premium for what we can otherwise get for almost nothing from the tap?
A question of taste
Taste is a common concern. Many people believe bottled water tastes better, principally because it doesn't have the chlorine used to clean tap water - some bottled varieties use ozone, which is more expensive.
<!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Northumbrian is one of several firms to bottle tap water, to make a point
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->It's a subjective issue, but the Drinking Water Inspectorate claims that if tap water is chilled, most of us can't taste the difference.
Portability is perhaps underrated by many. Bottled water is easy to pick up and throw away, and some brands have a street cachet.
Psychology also plays a role. Despite what we are told about tap water being cleaner than ever, it's hard not to be at least mildly repulsed by the thought that in some parts of the country at least, it has been recycled several times.
In contrast, mineral water brands use words such as "pure" and "unspoiled" to reinforce the natural image of their product.
Fears of modern life; a growing suspicion of science, driven by food and other health scares, also drives us to the bottle, according to research.
"Bottled water is the natural antidote to chemicals and technologies full of risk and hazard," says Simon Wessely, a psychiatry professor at King's College, London.
While chemicals are bad, minerals are good in the public consciousness - another persuasive argument for mineral water supporters, especially those drawn to the emerging range of waters with added minerals and vitamins.
But nutritionist Joanne Lunn of the British Nutrition Foundation is sceptical.
Sex changes
"You shouldn't be choosing bottled water over tap water as being better for you," she says. "There's very little difference in the calcium and phosphates found in either, but we get the vast majority of our essential minerals from our food. Water is for hydration, not its mineral content."
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Natural mineral water - must come from natural source and be free of harmful bacteria and pollution
Spring water - must also be from underground source, but treatment is allowed to reduce mineral content
Bottled drinking water (table water/spa water) - no restrictions on source, but must meet basic criteria
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IBOX -->Fellow nutritionist Adam Carey is more doubtful, saying the quality of tap water varies greatly around the country.
"For probably the vast majority of people, the worry about tap water is exaggerated and this has allowed companies to feed on the hysteria."
But he is concerned by findings which point to rising oestrogen levels in river water, thought to derive from nitrates in fertilisers. This is believed by some to explain why some fish male fish are changing sex.
Dr Carey questions whether this might explain why average sperm counts in men have dropped by two-thirds in a generation. But bottled water is no solution, he says.
"People don't boil a kettle with bottled water, or cook their vegetables in it - the cost would be extortionate. I use a reverse osmosis filter at source, so my tap water comes out ready filtered. It takes chemical parts per million in tap water down from 60,000 to one or two."
"You can even bottle it and take it with you. Some people would even sell it." <HR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4373350.stm
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