Still or Sparkling?
by Bonnie Alter, London on 03. 6.08
How many times have you been asked that question--"still or sparkling?" when you sit down at a restaurant. And how many times have you been made to feel like a cheapskate when your answer to the waiter was "tap water, please" ? The Evening Standard, a feisty little London newspaper, has started a "Water on Tap" campaign, urging restaurateurs to sign a pledge to offer tap water to patrons. The paper wants to change the image of tap water and make it socially acceptable to ask for it and drink it. Now Briton's drink 3 billion bottles a year, half of which are flown or shipped in--that's a lot of carbon emissions for something so readily available.
Research has shown that 70% of the public thinks that mineral water in restaurants is too expensive. Nine out of ten restaurants pushed patrons to buy bottled water, often at outrageous prices--some have charged £3.50 ($7.00) for a bottle and few offer tap water. We already know that London's tap water is healthy and that in taste tests it rates just as well, if not better than some brands of bottled water. One restaurant, Zilli's has already banned bottled water across all 4 of its branches. In support, the Chancellor will be drinking water when he presents his budget next week. Stop Press: It has just been announced that "only tap water will be served at (Prime Minister) Gordon Brown's Cabinet sessions and during official business". :: Evening Standard
My problem with drinking most tap water is not just the chlorine (which my tap filter removes), but also the fluoride. I do not want to consume a bi-product of aluminum. Since the benefits of fluoride are not supported, and, at least here in the U.S., we are all being "medicated" by our local governments without permission (fluoride is available by prescription only), maybe more energy needs to go toward making this change, first. Then myself, and probably millions more, would be willing to drink tap water.
Well-documented benefit of fluoride: cavity prevention, so you can keep your teeth till you die.
i think this is a question of priorities. I'm sorry but with all the environmental toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis--from our furniture, traffic in the street, our offices, our clothes our food--fluoride in our tap water, IMHO, can't be a priority. Maybe if everyone started drinking tap water public administrators would care more about whether people wanted it there or not. I see this argument frequently and I don't disagree, I just think its really counterproductive.
This is a healthy debate. But I am torn between kids getting fatter due to what they eat and drink (http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/let-the-fat-kids-play/) and everything being called eco-friendly (http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/make-it-better-how-friendly-is-eco-friendly/). Those are my blog by the way.
What I want to know is, when are airports going to offer free tap water to customers after they've cleared security, instead of making them pay over £3.50 per 50 ml?
Something should be done about the airports, where it's impossible to find tap water and, after the new regulations, one is forced to buy plastic or die of thirst!
I think this is a great move - I made my first trip to Europe this past summer, and while I was impressed by the public transit, bike lanes, compact towns, and small cars, I was, to be frank, constantly pissed off by the restaurants that refused to serve me a glass of tap water. Waiters simply ignored me when I asked for it over and over and over.
Well in Mexico nobody drinks tap water (I live in Central Mexico), it is actually a governments policy to promote either boiled water, bottled water or the use of chlorine or another specific product. It is a matter of health.
Most people prefer to buy bottled water (" garrafón " : reusable plastic or glass bottle for about 11 liters (3 gals) of purified water) for their houses and restaurants, because it is cheaper than boiling and healthier than chlorine. We don't trust tap water either. But I think that the use of purified water in big reusable bottles like the garrafón is way better than small PVC bottles and safer than the other options.
In Australia it's considered normal to be provided with a glass or (for a group of people) a bottle of chilled tap water when you sit down before you even order.