distillation and bottling company in Bermuda.

Pure Water, a new company, launched an extensive promotional campaign this week to advertise its five gallon bottles of drinking water.

A full page advertisement claimed Pure Water's product was "the purest water in the world''.

"You will enjoy the taste and take comfort from the fact that you are drinking the purest water available in Bermuda,'' it said.

The claims have been dismissed as "false'' by Mr. Colin Palmer who runs two local companies which specialise in reverse osmosis systems.

Reverse Osmosis, which makes sea water safe to drink, is an alternative method to distillation for providing drinking water.

Mr. Palmer has accused Pure Water of misleading customers by making false claims about their product.

"It's not only false advertising but it's confusing to the consumer,'' said Mr. Palmer, who runs Reverse Osmosis Systems and Bermuda Boiler Specialists.

He said pure water, in its technical sense, was not fit to drink.

He cited an article in the industry's Water Technology magazine which stated: "The highest purity of water normally available today, as measured by resistivity, is 18,200,000 ohm-cm.

"This is typically obtained on an industrial or laboratory basis by using reverse osmosis followed by mixed bed on ion exchange.

"Water this pure is aggressive and would upset the electrolyte balance of the body and be harmful if drunk directly.'' Mr. Palmer, who is a representative of the Water Quality Association, an independent watchdog body in the US, added: "Clearly, it is very confusing to the customer to go around advertising your water as pure.'' Mr. Palmer also took Pure Water to task over claims that distillation takes out more pollutants from water than does reverse osmosis.

He produced figures from the National Sanitation Foundation in the US which purported to show that RO was the most effective water treatment system available, just pipping distillation.

Mr. Allan Marshall, who owns Pure Water with his sister, Mrs. Norma Cross, refuted Mr. Palmer's allegations and said his product would stand up to any test.

"Distillation gives the purest water available,'' he said. "I can produce figures which support that.'' As for claiming that his product was the "purest in the world'', Mr. Marshall said he was indulging in "a bit of advertising largesse''.

"I consider our water pure. People have often said that Bermuda's water is the purest in the world.

"Since the water we produce is the only water made in Bermuda to be put in a bottle, then we can make the claim to be the world's purest.'' But both men said they did not want to get into a war of words over the issue.