Problem with bottled water

[Richard D]

This article should be spread everywhere. I knew bottled water was a problem, but not to the extent written about below:


Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water in the belief--often mistaken, as it happens--that this is better for us than what flows from our taps, according to environmental think tank the Earth Policy Institute (EPI).

For a fraction of that sum, everyone on the planet could have safe drinking water and proper sanitation, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said this week.

<snip>


By one view, the consequences for the planet and for consumers' purses are horrifying.

''Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing--producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy,'' said Arnold. ''Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more.''

At up to $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline in the United States.


Tap water comes to us through an energy-efficient infrastructure whereas bottled water must be transported long distances--and nearly one-fourth of it across national borders--by boat, train, airplane, and truck. This ''involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels,'' Arnold said.

much more: http://tinyurl.com/bm59o

[stop the bleeding]

1. I always thought the same thing about producing bottle water

I am just going to brew my own beer and cut all negatives out of the equation:beer:

[AllegroRondo]

7. Tap water has many minerals that are great for making beer

I live in an area with very hard water. That extra calcium makes for great dark beers. If your tap water is very soft, you should try making lagers and pilseners.

[stop the bleeding]

9. very cool - learn something everyday - thank you n/t

[havocmom]

17. What beer is good if your tap has fecal chloroform & some odd

radioactive properties?

Used to drink tap when I lived in other places. The tap water where I live now? Brushing my teeth with it seems to have risks.

[madokie]

30. My self we bought a pur undersink filter 12, 15 years ago

All of our cooking and drinking is the filtered water. When friends come over at first I would run a glass of the tap water and one of the filtered water just so they could smell and taste for themselves the difference, kinda like the difference between gas and electric cook stoves. When we have dinner where the food is cooked on gas I can taste and smell it as sure as I'm typing here now.

[havocmom]

36. Lots of filters here abouts

Water still comes back bad when tested

[madokie]

40. I haven't had it tested but it is a far cry from what I have to shower in

When we purchased this place a few years ago I got a test kit to send in to have the water tested in a well on our property, we just decided not to use the well so I still have the kit. I think I'll round it up and send in a sample out of our filter to see what it says. After all the kit cost me something like 20 bucks or so. Thanks for the heads up. When I get the results back I'll post the results.

[BrewerJohn]

31. Don't forget the activated carbon filter to get rid of the chlorine

and the larger chunks.

[AllegroRondo]

34. I use the decant method to get rid of chlorine

chlorine will ruin a good beer.

[sui generis]

2. I'm a tapwater pig!

The only times I ever buy bottled water are during travel - especially in less well developed countries. I do filter cooking and drinking water at home; Dallas gets this "mossy" flavor in the water in late summer from algal blooms that bends other cooking flavors and tastes like drinking water out of a highschool jock's tennis shoe (don't ask).

[sadiesworld]

3. The funniest part is watching people lug flats of the stuff out

of the supermarket preceding a potential weather emergency. Jeez, if your tap water tastes crappy, use a filter.

Not only is it incredibly expensive and wasteful (the plastic), it is a way in which the well-to-do opt out of a public service leaving it open to degradation.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

19. It's understandable in a weather emergency

After all, weather (or earthquakes) can disrupt power grids. No power, no pumps, which means no tap water.

Filters are best for everyday, but a stock of backup water is a good idea. We keep about a dozen gallons in jugs in a cabinet, part of our hurricane preparedness kit.

[sadiesworld]

20. Why wouldn't they just fill up some jugs and put them aside?

No, I think they are scared to death of being without their prepackaged fix for a few days.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

27. You have a point.

But, where would one get the jugs to fill? I've never seen those gallon jugs sold empty, except the large expensive ones like you use to hold gasoline. Seems to me you would have to buy water at the market at least once, just to have the jugs to refill.

[sadiesworld]

32. I have used two liter soda bottles full of water.

:shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

38. Camping supplies include inexpensive, collapsible water jugs.

They're rated for water storage, have fill caps and spigots, and come in 2 1/2 and 5 gallon sizes.
When people are out grabbing bottled water off the shelf in advance of a storm I'm home digging through the camping gear.
Of course buying jugs at the supermarket and refilling them with tap water works too.

[kenny blankenship]

4. Much bottled water is just tapwater filtered and put in a bottle with

a snow-capped mountain on the label. Biggest scam going. Or it comes from a not so special and not so clean and pure spring source put through a filter. Purified water is just filtered tapwater. Chances are with all the mineral content removed by reverse osmosis filtration it (purified water) tastes more than anything else like the plastic container it was stored in.
Some bottled waters actually come from a single spring source--these are a tiny minority though! Out of a random sample of hundreds you might find two or three of these.
If you're concerned about the quality of your water, get a water quality testkit from a hardware store or have a sample analyzed professionally.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Three Companies In Chicago Were Caught Doing Just That

Back in around 1999, WFLD did a hidden camera expose' on that. Three major Chicago firms were shown filling bottles on a fill line that had nothing but a large particle filter at the inlet. No exotic filtration. No extra demineralization. No extra purification. Just a fillling machine hooked to Chicago tap water with a 30 micron filter at the source.

So, the bottled water was EXACTLY the same as normal tap water, yet they were marketing it as healthier. They stopped that marketing scheme when they were caught, but they are all still in business.
The Professor

[satya]

5. Bottled water is "privatized" water (and so is Coke, Gatorade, etc)

It's taking the commons (the water supply), repackaging it and selling it to the people who can afford it. As drinking water becomes more scarce, there will be less available for lower-income people (just like healthcare, food, energy, housing...)

Call me a socialist, but I think we all benefit when everyone has access to the basic necessities of life. That's what these words mean to me:

...form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity...

[wtbymark]

6. Nestlee owns most of the bottled water companies n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Only one time in our lives did we buy boxes of water on a regular basis

and that was when we lived in a house where the well was drawing water from a really nasty pond through a very rusty set of pipes. After that we moved to another place where the hand dug well ran dry all summer and froze up all winter, but by then we'd found other places to fill containers and drive them back to the trailer.

[justabob]

10. Then there are the related problems...

Companies coming in and draining aquifers that whole regions depend on for their tap water and farm irrigation. It is happening here in Texas and I am sure in other places. Oil men are also diversifying into water rights.... we all know how that will turn out. Privatization of water terrifies me.

[alarimer]

29. T. Boone Pickins is one of them

Buying up water rights from some small communities in order to sell it to Coke or someone to send around the world. Water laws (right of first capture here in Texas for groundwater) basically says you can do whatever you want with the water you own even if you deprive others of the water. There are laws against "malicious pumping" but I doubt they have much teeth.

[justabob]

35. Yes, he's the main one I was thinking of

From what I understand, those pumping laws don't have any teeth, and there is certainly no enforcement anyway. I hope Texas does something about that. I know DFW is near the top of the list for danger of severe water shortages in the next decade or so. I can't remember what other communities in Texas that are threatened.

[Richard D]

11. What wasn't said in this article . . .

. . . is that bottled water, actually anything packaged in plastic, is potentially cancer causing. The softeners used in making the plastic are known xenoestrogens and known carcinogens. They aren't supposed to leach out into the food and water, but if the plastic gets hot (how many bottles of water sit on a hot car seat?) the chemicals get into the water. Also after long storage. Think about the increase in breast cancer (usually estrogen sensitive). It pretty much parallels the increase in consumption of bottled water. It could even account for the Marin paradox where a health conscious northern California community where there is good air quality, etc. has a very high rate of breast cancer.

[sadiesworld]

16. Wouldn't that be right up there in the Irony Hall of Fame?

(not laughing here--I've been using teflon pans for decades and LOVE microwave popcorn)

[Stephanie]

24. Okay, the xenoestrogen thing has convinced me -

I think I'll get a faucet filter. I guess Brita wouldn't be any better because of the plastic pitcher?

[Squatch]

13. The only bottle water I use consistently is Deer Park...

it has a better mineral profile than my tap water which makes for a much better homebrew.

[MadHound]

14. Buying bottled water is foolish and unneccessary in most areas

I can understand wanting to filter your water, our local tapwater has a bit of a chlorine tang to it that I filter out. But unless you are living in some real primitive, unsanitary backwater of America, or you have an emergency or natural disaster, there is no need to buy bottled water.

I think that this all started, like cell phones, SUVs and other unneeded BS, as a status symbol item. "Look, I'm so cool, hip and loaded that I drink water that is bottled and flown in from some spring" And since most everybody wants to look cool, hip and loaded, the shit just started flying off the shelves. Another testimony to the stupidity of Americans and our society.

[wishlist]

15. Using a good faucet filter is cheaper than buying bottled water too

Consumer Reports has tested the filters and good ones like Pur and Waterpik are reasonably priced, easy to install and very effective at removing the chlorine, lead or other contaminants. We used to buy bottled water because the chlorine in our tap water was so strong, but noticed a strong plastic taste with some of the bottled water and heard most of the clear plastic water bottles leach out bad chemicals.

3 years ago I installed a filter on our kitchen faucet and one on the bathroom faucet and just change filters every few months. They are very easy to put on the faucets and water tastes great now.

[savemefromdumbya]

18. Some bottled water contains lots of microorganisms and nasties

The Food and Drug Administration needs to tightened its regulations on bottled water after a four-year study by the NRDC found that of 103 brands surveyed, one- third contained levels of contamination.

The NRDC found the contents of one bottle, labeled "Spring Water," actually came from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site.

http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-bottled-unsafe-drinking.htm
http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/chap3.asp

[MissMarple]

21. We drink tapwater, but have bottled water for trips.

I really like mineral water. Several brands have a good deal of calcium. :)

[radwriter0555]

22. Flouride is a deadly, toxic poison, as is chlorine. I refuse to drink

water contaminated with those chemicals.

[Wilms]

23. Soot spewing trucks carrying water.

Very dumb.

[Yollam]

25. Bottled water is psychological conditioning.

We are being trained to think of water as a commodity to be bought and sold rather than the community resource it always has been.

And it is also true that the cleanliness of bottled water is not regulated in any way.

A lot of what is labeled "spring" water, is being pumped out of aquifers (IE well water), many of which have already been tapped to excess and have problems with excess salts & heavy metals. Unless your area's tap water has been declared unsafe, it would be cheaper and wiser to buy a top quality filtration system.

You would also avoid wasting all that plastic in the bottles...

[WildEyedLiberal]

26. I agree in principle it's a stupid idea

But some towns have NASTY ASS tap water. I don't have a purifier, so I don't know if that improves the flavor of nasty tap water or not. If it does, it's obviously more cost-efficient than bottled water.

[AzDar]

39. ..LOVE that quote from Zappa in your sig line; very cool. n/t

[alarimer]

28. A lot of bottled water actually comes from municiple taps

With maybe some extra filtration. Usually there is a source listed on the the bottle. I only drink bottled water when I am out in the filed away from a ready source of freshwater. Usually, though, it is water straight from the tap. It is perfectly safe and, unless it has a peculiar flavor or is too hard, there is no reason not to use tap water.

[philosophie_en_rose]

37. The tap water in Seattle is notoriously good.

The city actually thought about bottling and selling it.

With water that good, I can't understand why people buy bottled water. It tastes worse than tap!

I only buy bottled water, when I'm in town. I refill the bottle.

[alarimer]

41. Bottled water tastes like plastic to me.

But everyone's different. I've been drinking tap water my whole life. I know that there are problems in some areas (Remember cryptosporidium in, I think, Wisconsin- killed some people). But mostly it is safe.

[philosophie_en_rose]

42. Bottled water sometimes contains plastic.

I once left some unopened bottles in my car. They froze. Upon defrosting, the bottles looked fine. However, the water tasted like plastic.

[genie_weenie]

33. makes me think of Camp Lejeune

the water table in and around Swamp Lejeune is so bad and loaded with run off chemicals, heavy metals, low grade radioactive materials, it made me fear the water more so even the Euphrates. It's caused a several sigma spike in some childhood birth defects.

Here's a link or two and a tagline:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcpolicy/5sciepane3.html

"Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking Water and Specific Birth Defects and Childhood Cancers at United States Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina," was begun in Spring 2005.



PS- I usually drink bottled water now