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Have Your Say debate: Is it unethical to drink bottled water?

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I have a problem with fluoride. It affects my digestion and makes my joints ache. I am extremely grateful that I discovered this fact as by avoiding tap water I enjoy a better life than I would have had. I have to buy bottled water as I live in a fluoridated tap water area. I found that the government is not concerned about individuals like me, but they have no way of knowing how many people could be affected in a similar way. The programme was wide of the mark. It should have been looking at what is wrong with our tap water.
Carol, Redditch, UK

No one has yet mentioned using a filter jug. Although I live in Portugal, the water here tastes of chlorine. With the use of a filter jug the water tastes much the same as bottled water. Other impurities are also removed. Quite easy to fill up your own plastic bottle over and over again. I think we should all try to cut down on the use of so much plastic.
Janet Burnett, Porto, Portugal

Very disappointing to read your comments page lots of selfish people who have convinced themselves that tap water is bad for you. In other parts of the world people would kill for our water. What hope has our planet got if these people cannot even give up their precious little luxuries, never mind the impact on the environment. Here in Dorset our beaches are covered in plastic. It causes many deaths to marine wildlife. I suppose these people strutting down the streets of london with their little bottle of water couldn't care less!! But don't moan when you come on holiday and the beaches are covered in rubbish.
Steve Trewhella, Wareham Dorset

I thought the programme would have benefited from providing further analysis on the extent to which tap water contains phthalates, hormones, bio-accumulates & endocrine disruptors. From what I understand most tap water contains these as the cost for utilities to strip them out is prohibitively expensive. I think this would have given a more balanced assessment of the issue.
Alexia Zavos, London

I would prefer to drink tap water. However it is well known that tap water contains xenooetrogens which might interfere with the normal action of the female reproductive hormones. In addition tap water often tastes of chlorin (well at least where I live) which I think is a good reason to switch to bottled water. I wonder why your programme did not mention any of this.
Alexandra Di Domenico, Edinburgh

A good programme. As to taste, only Thames water mentioned, but try Severn-Trent. It is really dreadful. There were 27 chemicals added in the 80s, so how many now! Yorkshire water tastes wonderful, but there will still be chemicals added. Tap water is not "pure". There is no choice about fluoridisation. Some of us prefer not to have it as there are good arguments against it. Taste and purity most important. We recycle all plastics. Could a small fee be given to the customer for returned bottles, as used to be done with glass.
Maureen Verney, Goole, East Yorks. UK

Was it really necessary for your reporter to fly 40,000 km to report on bottled water. What was wrong with Buxton, France, Italy or Belgium ? Then to tell us how environmentally unfriendly the bottled water is. Double standards?
A M Edgar, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire

In the course of the programme, the Environment Minister, Phil Woolas, talked about the consumption of bottled water being 'morally unacceptable', yet the government has plans to force fluoridation of the water supply on a larger proportion of the population, thereby obliging more people who do not wish to submit themselves to this controversial mass-medication to buy bottled water or use filters.

Aren't there more important issues in the world today than bottled water? Stop pandering to sensationalist pap and concentrate on real issues again.
Will, London, Uk

We live in an area of outstanding natural beauty and also in a proposed world heritage site and yet our unpopulated coastline is also desercrated with plastic bottles. I have been informed that once boats get out into the channel they can discharge their rubbish into the sea to wash up on a "Robinson Crusoe" beach. How can this be allowed and what can we do to stop this?. Last October we as a family took part in a back breaking beach clean to remove tons of rubbish, the majority being plastic only to find to my horror on a beautiful day the coastline trashed. Please can you help.
Lynn Willis, Ventnor Isle of Wight

I don't agree with what your programme says about drinking tap water. There is a big difference in water from the tap and any bottled water, especially in hard water areas like London. It's not even good for washing clothes in, let alone drinking. Bottled water tastes better and is better suited for making tea, coffee or any other drinks altogether. The quality of London tap water is appalling. On the other hand, I only use inland bottled water, not imported, I cant afford it!
Ms Nourmand, North London

I am disappointed that the programme did not tackle the claims and accounts of estrogen or hormones in tap water- until more is done to address that issue, I'll continue buying bottled water, don't want to take any risks!
Gayle James, London

I could not agree more that we should avoid bottled water. However, it is not easy to avoid. While travelling it is not possible to get reusable bottles through airport security which means we are forced to buy the bottled stuff or go thirsty and means that there are no bottles to refill at the other end either. In German Switzerland restaurants are not obliged to provide free tap water and usually refuse to do so! A lot needs to change!
Fiona Ross, Switzerland

I have just watched your Panorama programme about the Bottled Water Industry and fail to understand why the fact that most of the brands available, cost much more per litre than the 'ex tax' price of petrol, was not discussed with the producers. Perhaps you would like to reply with your justification for this.
Ray Chapman, Helmsley North Yorks.

Are you having a laugh? Don't drink bottled water? What happened in Gloucester last year? Millions of bottles of water had to be distributed when the taps went dry because of the flooding. Also at the first sign of hot weather in this country the water companies start bleating about us needing to cut down on using water if everybody took to drinking tap water you can well imagine what the outcome would be.
Colin Jones, Alfreton England

So what would the politically correct men at the BBC like to stop us doing next. Will it be fizzy drinks? Or worse still wine in those heavy glass bottles that use huge amounts of energy to produce, oh and wine comes from all around the globe. Should we all go back and live in caves and drink tap water which tastes of chlorine. What happened to free choice? All you are doing is sowing seeds in the minds of the current government to try and control our lives even more. If the BBC and government were really concerned about carbon footprints they could act tomorrow in a million and one ways.
Adrian Struthers, Hereford Herefordshire

Well. I am surprised by that programme. Not sure on the carbon footprint but I see water utility company vans on the road every day. tonnes of 'carbon' based tarmac being used in repairing leaks under roads...and miles of plastic pipes being used...and after all that I can't find a tap on the train or in my car...go on damage bottled water and get the nation back to fizzy pop....well done Panorama. Surely water on the go is better than fizzy pop on the go - think about it.
JP, Hull

I've only seen the first 10 minutes, but really, I don't need to see any more. Very disappointed that the BBC is trying to convince us that there is no difference between a glass of tap water, and a bottle of mineral water. What a load of nonsense. Absolute rubbish. Anyone who cannot tell the difference between a bottle of Evian, Hépar, Vittel, Contrex, Wattwiller, or whatever mark happens to be available, from a glass of tap water, probably needs their taste buds examined. The taste differs according to the mineral content. E.g. one with lots of magnesium in it, such as Contrex, has a very distinctive softish chalky taste. Vittel has a similar softish taste, but not as apparent. Evian again very much has its own taste: and they are nothing, absolutely nothing, like tap water. To say otherwise, is nonsense. Lastly, the whole point of drinking different mineral waters is to ensure you are drinking a wide range of minerals, rather than same few minerals over and over again, which could lead eventually to deficiencies in some minerals, on account of over consumption of others. I usually like Panorama. But am really disappointed with this one. Nonsense. Utter nonsense.
Siobhan Montgomery, Strasbourg, France

Having viewed your programme this evening I would challenge the minister to come up to Scotland and drink the water we are presented with. I have to endure the stench of chemicals when ever I open the tap to fill the sink. I for one will continue to use bottled water until the council provide decent quality drinking water from our taps.
Stuart Robertson, Campbeltown, Scotland

I would like to say how insulted I am to be described as foolish and irresponsible for drinking bottled water, maybe if the government stopped illegally medicating my water with a substance described as more toxic than lead (fluoride) I will continue to use bottled water as I refuse to give my children a substance that has been linked to bone cancer in males, sterility and a lowering of IQ. PURE TAP WATER !!!! don't make me laugh!!!!
Toni Coey, Birmingham

I am so glad you have raised this issue particularly in relation to the plastic bottles and landfill. In the floods last year I got so sick of all the plastic bottles kicking around from water and milk bottles and the constant journeys to the recycling centre that I now have also gone back to the local milkman and specifically requested glass bottles so that they can be reused. My issue with tap water is the chemicals that are added to it i.e. fluoride and chlorine, but not worried enough to buy bottles of water. I think to a certain extent it is all about choices, but maybe we have too many.
Jenny Wright, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

An outstanding programme. It really made me think about what I take for granted and how brainwashed we can be. Our tap water here is more than adequate and even though I drink Swiss bottled water that is bottled in this country, I am now worried about the provenance of the plastic bottles and what happens to them even though I recycle them. Let's hope others follow suit and especially those daft people who pay over £20 for a bottle and want it sent from Fiji. Thank you BBC. I shall spread the word to all my colleagues and students.
Elizabeth Durant, Geneva, Switzerland

The programme was certainly convincing in its anti- bottled water arguments. But aren't there arguments against tap water too? - is it or is it not a fact that tap water contains dangerous amounts of female hormones, resultant from the wide use of contraceptives - and damaging to human male fertility? Or is this an unfounded rumour? It's why the men of my family favour bottled water. After all, it's common knowledge that 'the River Thames is drunk 7 times before it reaches the sea'!
Penelope Starr, Reading England

What biased reporting - surely the BBC is supposed to be impartial, educate and entertain - not campaign for or against specific causes. Whether you agree or disagree with this or other Panorama programs is not the point. Jobs, lives and futures depend on the bottled water industry, as with any other industry, so the BBC should surely tread carefully and discuss all the issues. Fine, lets have a debate but who voted for the BBC to have such a strong "anti" view on bottled water. Perhaps we might have a debate on the poll tax the BBC levies on the poor and elderly - but I guess not.
Nick Beart, London

Tap water here may not be unhealthy, but it is certainly unpleasant to smell and drink. How can a government which supports (including via bribery) the sales of armaments, complain of the immorality of the bottled water industry?
Jimmy McFarlane, Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Very one sided programme, no mention of chlorine added to mains water or thousands of miles of lead water pipe in UK or water companies being fined for poisoning customers in North Wales. The Fiji water segment did not make it clear that the people responsible for water supply in Fiji are the government not a water bottler. I used to live in Hertfordshire and the mains supply was barely fit to bathe in never mind drink. No mention made of small rural bottling plants who provide essential jobs for farmers families.
George V Young, Abergele Wales

I was very disappointed in the attitude of the programme towards Fiji Water. Although this was a piece on bottled water, there was a distinct "finger wagging" going on encouraging the viewer to feel that Fiji Water were somehow responsible for the lack of adequate water supplies. In truth the Fijian government is responsible, and if Fiji Water is using resources that should be used for the benefit of native Fijians, then it is up to the government to act.
Gavin Inches, Birmingham UK

Bottled water isn't an alternative to tap water - it's an alternative to wine, beer and spirits. Cheaper, healthier, more socially acceptable and environmentally friendly. And while I often actually prefer a San Pellegrino sparkling (glass bottle of course) to a Glenmorangie or Fleurie, I can't say the same for tap water!
Paul Sutcliffe, Lewes East Sussex UK