Bottled water sales tap into health fears

New Zealand's growing obsession with bottled water is an indication we are much more concerned with our health than the generations before us.

In a paper published in the British Medical Journal, Auckland University psychology professor Keith Petrie says bottled water is seen as a natural antidote to "chemicals and technologies full of risk and hazard, genetically engineered food, low-level radiation, harmful medications and viruses".

"Studies that we've done show that New Zealanders are probably even more concerned than other countries about these sorts of things."

There are now dozens of water varieties on sale in New Zealand including still, sparkling and those with "splashes" of fruit flavour.

Bottled water costs around 1000 times more than that drawn from the tap. Professor Petrie says tap water is just as safe, yet sales continue to rise.

In Britain, $2.6 billion was spent on bottled water last year.

Grocers' Review tracked the New Zealand market and found it had increased by 13.7 per cent last year.

The publication said the mineral water market here is driven by taste, packaging and performance.

"Most New Zealanders have a ready source of free or very cheap quality water available to them on tap, so for them to pay for a bottled water it has to be an attractive alternative."

However, Professor Petrie says the situation creates a paradox.

"In the Third World, large numbers of people die because they can't get clean water. In our society we are lucky enough to have very safe tap drinking water but people reject that in favour of buying bottled water which also creates quite a lot of waste in terms of plastic."

He said it was hard to know why the shift to bottled water occurred.

"One of the things we've been interested in is how people's worries about modern life affect their health and their own perceptions of their health.

"People do seem to be a lot more concerned about these things affecting their health than they have been in previous generations."

For the psychologist, however, there is no argument.

"I drink tap water - I don't have any complaints."

Tap off

To August last year we spent:

* $23 million on non-carbonated mineral water.

* $3.5 million on carbonated mineral water.

* $1 million on carbonated flavoured water.

Source: Grocers' Review