re. City's tap water campaign called insulting by local reader

I can understand Aliss Terpstra being upset over the City's tap water campaign. It must be quite distressing to realize how much money you've been wasting buying an overpriced and inferior product. However, the solution is not to shoot the messenger.

Of course, it's easy to raise the old chestnuts about fluorine and chlorine in our water supply. Back in the 1960's it was supposed to be a communist plot to poison our water. However, half a century of use has demonstrated the safety of these additives for the general population. In fact, it was the lack of chlorine that led to the public health disaster in Walkerton.

No need to take the City's word for it however. Both the American Consumers Union and the Consumers Association of Canada have done extensive testing of tap water versus bottled water. Their results show conclusively that tap water is the hands down winner, matching the best bottled products in taste while there isn't even a contest in price! Moreover, some of the bottled products were found to contain alarming levels of salts and metals - enough to be dangerous in some cases.

And that's without even discussing the potential for contamination in the bottling process.

With most bottled water coming in plastic containers these days, concern has also been raised about carcinogens leeching from the container into the water. While I'm not aware of any definitive scientific studies yet, common sense suggests that you limit your consumption until the issue is settled.

And then there's the environmental impact of all these single-use containers.

So on the one hand, we have an inexpensive product with a proven record and on the other, we have outrageously expensive products which may or may not be safe. Of course the more expensive one must be better, right?

Gary Dale