Are there any health benefits in drinking purified water as compared to
tap water or is it mainly an issue of taste? I live in a large US city,
and the tap water tastes horrid, but I don't think that it can actually
affect my health (although I have been told so). Have there been any
studies done on this?

Your water company should be sending you a report each year about what
is in the water. Get one, and look at it.

There is no simple relationship between taste and healthfulness. You
need to look at what is in the water.

The water presumably meets legal specs, so is officially considered ok
for health. Of course, there is always room to quibble about some of
the specs.

Bottom line... there is probably no big problem with it. But any
better statement requires looking at the analysis -- looking at
specifics.

bob

Tap water IS purified water.
--
Jim Chinnis   Warrenton, {*filter*}ia, USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not so.  Tap water is full of minerals and trace
chemicals.  What you lose in purified water is
the fluoride which slows or prevents dental
cavities.  To compensate, brush with a medically
recommended  fluoride compound.  One more
thing.  Don't rinse your mouth after brushing.
You can spit but not rinse.  This allows extra fluoride
ions to penetrate  the enamel.  Ask your dentist for a
sample.  The standard tube costs $12.

David H
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"purified," not "pure."
--
Jim Chinnis   Warrenton, {*filter*}ia, USA

Some of which are beneficial.  

And what makes you think bottled water doesn't have those same minerals and
trace chemicals?  Unless it's distilled water, bottled in glass and sealed
imperviously, what makes it any better?

Nature is funny that way.  Pure water simply doesn't exist in nature, and
I'm pretty skeptical that anything bottled in plastic is "pure" for very
long anyway.

In fact, I'm not even sure what "purified water" actually is, but if we're
talking about commercial bottled water sold under various marketing names
that evoke images of crystal clear springs, those products often have much
higher bacteria counts than the average municipal water supply.  The only
thing pure about them is the picture of crystal clear springs on the label
and the profits they generate.

Bottled water is the biggest scam of the century.  It never ceases to amaze
me that people will pay well over $1 for a half liter of water of unknown
quality if it's put in a bottle with a fancy label.

The chlorine in tap water is probably responsible for some small
number of cases of bladder cancer every year, though I'm not sure
how well established this is.  (The cost of not disinfecting the
water is higher, of course.)  So a filter that removes chlorine
might be worth having if you consume tap water.

Your local water almost certainly isn't harmful, but if you don't
like the taste of it, get a filter.

  -- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net
     These are my opinions only, but they're almost always correct.
     "I believe The Battle of the Network Stars should be fought with guns."
                                        -- Steve Martin

COMMENT:

It's a dollar's worth of decreased anxiety, baby.  Works just as well
as a dollar's worth of anxiety-decreasing homeopathic crap, and fixes
your thirst, too. Hey, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp
stick.

SBH

Nah. I buy bottled water because it's convenient, it's healthier than
Coke and tastes better than the local municipal water. The labels don't
fool me. My favorite brand is from the Houston city supply and merely
run through charcoal filters. Yumm.

L Darnall

Yes---I have been getting this for a few years now. I quit using it a year
ago or so in order to save a few bucks a year due to my loss of work and
return to school. My dentist Rx'd it for sensitivity, and it works, but you
have to be consistent (which isn't a big deal for me, I just decided to stop
buying it for the moment due to financial reasons), and I found BID TX is
fine. Once in the morning & at bedtime after brushing. David's right---you
just brush it on for a few minutes (recommended, but a minute is fine).

AFA the tap H2O question, well, the Culligan water we use at home (& my
dad's office) is filtered by reverse osmosis & some other filtration
techniques, & I believe it's much different then the tap water here in town.
The Culligan (or most any other reverse osmosis/filtered water, or even
spring water) makes all the difference for me. Tastes great. Some add
minerals for taste, which is fine I guess, but I like that Culligan water.
(I know, the check's in the mail for spamming for Culligan, right?).

"Purifiers" are charcoal filters, not stills.  The water isn't de-
chlorinated, so it won't be de-fluoridated, either.

It's been through a charcoal filter.

So Houston has one redeeming quality, after all.  

;-)

        I'll have to check.  Many of the filters contain colloidal silver--I
believe they may be designed to remove chlorine.

Steve

--
Cut the nonsense to reply