On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:48:13 -0700 (PDT), "Why?"
wrote:


My daughter has just moved into a flat at Brighton. She is scientific
(of sorts)

She wishes to remove oestrogen, chlorine and a variety of other
alleged or actual contaminents from her drinking water and, it
appears, her shower water

The operative words in your description seem to be "of sorts" rather
than scientific.

She has cited a UK Water filter
http://www.uk-water-filters.co.uk/wa...?affcode=eir12

Which seems to me merely to filter (reverse osmosis plus filters)
drinking and cooking water at a slow rate and store it under sink for
later reuse

Indeed.

I am unconvinced that ordinary tap water is so bad as to need to do
this

Ordinary tap water needs no such treatment.

How could one get the contaminants or other contents of water over the
internet - surely it is in the public domain?

Water company carry out very frequent analysis of water at pumping
stations and at the point of delivery (over half a million tests per
region per year). They will supply you with copies of their latest
analysis if you request it.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/ covers the subject comprehensively.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/pubs/annrep08/...n%20Region.pdf
is the 2008 report covering Brighton.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/consumer/concerns/enddist.shtm covers the
periodic Oestrogen scares which appear in newspapers where the science
correspondent also covers sport and "lifestyle" issues.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/research/reportlist.shtm is a selection of
reports on various subjects concerning water analysis.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/consumer/concerns/index.shtm
is a simpler version.

has anyone experience of doing this for bath (ie whole house water)
which seems most improbable

Does the house have a water tank in the roof? if so you could always
fit a larger RO filter such as

http://www.jshumidifiers.com/pureflo...-h-44-details/

and use the water tank in the roof as a buffer. You may have to give
up the kitchen to fit the filter in to the house but as a scientific
person (of sorts) she will understand that.

likewise has anyone done this for cooking and drinking (very likely)
and if so what do the recommend?

Tap water. De-chlorinating is done by simply leaving the water to
stand in a jug for an hour or so. If you find the water to be hard
use a Brita filter jug.

It seems to me to be money for old rope with the cost of filters etc

It is. The effectiveness of these cheap domestic units is also very
variable. Usually, the higher the flow rate the less effective the
filter (for a given size). Quite a few simply don't work even to
their own declared standards (which are sometimes not very good to
begin with if you examine the figures). As there is nothing of worth
for them to filter in tap water no one ever notices and the cost of
periodic analysis is such that no one bothers doing it so their
failures remain undetected.

and that for drinking and cooking there must me a gravity filtration
or ion exchange system that would be cheaper

Brita jug.

I may be wrong

You are not.