G. Drinking Water Issues
The Inspectorate receives many enquiries about the quality of drinking water. Some are prompted by media reports about risks to health. Others concern advertising claims about home water treatment systems.
Enquirers are often confused about risks to themselves and their family. This section reviews frequently-received enquiries and provides advice on where to obtain more-detailed information.
The General Characteristics and Quality of your Tap Water
There is a lot of advertising concerning the merits of bottled water. Other advertising is aimed at persuading consumers to install water treatment systems within their homes, or to use jug filters to improve the quality of their drinking water.
Tap water supplied by water companies in England and Wales is safe to drink and there are no grounds for choosing bottled water or filtered water as a health protection measure.
Furthermore, several blind tasting studies have shown that consumers are often unable to distinguish chilled tap water from chilled bottled water.
Water filtration systems are unnecessary and, if not used with care, can cause a significant deterioration in the microbiological quality of water. Jug-type filters are at risk from splashing or airborne contamination.
Filters may be useful in the short term as a means of improving the aesthetic quality of water in areas prone to discoloured water. However, they should only be used after talking to the water company about the actions it can take to solve the problem.
In hard water areas, consumers may be concerned about scale deposition in kettles and hot water systems. If a water softener is installed it is important to maintain an unsoftened supply for drinking and food preparation.
Sodium chloride (salt) is used to regenerate ion exchange systems and sodium is continuously released by the resin during the softening process. This means that consuming softened water can constitute a significant proportion of the acceptable daily intake of sodium.
Media Reports on Pollution of Drinking Water
The Inspectorate plays an active role in briefing the media about the quality of drinking water. However, from time to time even well-balanced reports can confuse or scare consumers. The Inspectorate has produced a series of comprehensive reviews of issues that have been associated with reports on possible concerns about water quality.
These reviews can be found on the Inspectorate’s web site under ‘Information on current issues’, and include long standing water quality issues such as pesticides and nitrates. In addition, more recent concerns, such as contamination of groundwater by residues of pharmaceuticals in surface water, are included. Where appropriate, the reviews make reference to the Inspectorate’s research programme.
Further Information
The Inspectorate’s web site includes a consumer information section and this contains useful advice on minimising taste and odour in drinking water related to the presence of chlorine. The web site also contains information on other areas of concern.
As mentioned above, the Inspectorate offers a range of free leaflets that are also available on the web site.
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Drinking Water Inspectorate,
Floor 2/A1, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE
Telephone : 020 7944 5956 - Facsimile : 020 7944 5969
E-mail: dwi_enquiries@detr.gov.uk
Published 11 July 2001
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