Members of one were told to drink half a litre of water (a bit more than an American pint) shortly before each of three daily meals.

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He said even 24 years later, people who lived in Camelford at the time of the poisoning should drink a litre of mineral water with a high silicon content every day as this could help flush aluminium from their bodies.

BBC: Carole Cross

Most of this burden was carried as an implicit subsidy to domestic energy consumers, with the price of diesel fuel, for example, set at the equivalent of two American cents a litre, and petrol selling for less than bottled water.

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While the report makes a raft of recommendations, Prof Stephenson attacked sugary drinks for being "just water and sugar" and lambasted a culture where it was deemed acceptable to drink a litre of fizzy drink at the cinema.

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