Question:
I was thinking specifically of contamination from copper pipes and suchlike,and additives like chlorine and flouride.

Also, when I said bottled water, I meant bottled spring water.

Are you suggesting that this whole spring water thing is just a con?

Answer: What contamination from copper pipes? Lead pipes you'd have an issue,if copper pipes were bad we'd all have died from sucking pennies when wewere sprogs.

Chlorine isn't added to water: it isn't very soluble and would come offit as a poisonous green vapour, killing anyone doing the washing up: notterribly practical! It's some or other chlorate (sodium?) that'sgenerally referred to as "chlorine" for water purification IIRC. Thesame sort of thing used for puritabs I think, it has a track record ofnot doing people any harm. Ditto flouride, though that does have atrack record of improving people's teeth.

Such was my assumption. And springs are subject to any old eseeping through the ground to the water table, and a litany of suchhorror stories formed the basis of TDF's "you are wating your time withthis stuff if you think it must be healthier" thesis. If you want purewater, battery topper is distilled so as pure as you can get. If youwant a natural source, a mountain spring is probably as good or betterthan bottled spring: it's had less time to pick up interestingcompounds.

Depends what "this whole spring water thing" *is*. If you think it's aroute to better health than tap water, I'm pretty damn sure it's a conand the hydrogeology, research chemisty and public health records appearto back up that viewpoint AFAICT. If you find your local water tastes alittle more of purification chemicals than you'd like it to then it's aneasily available alternative without that problem, so in that case not acon at all. Ardbeg is an expensive alternative to J&B that tastesnicer. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with J&B though.