   |  | | If you don't buy it, how best to contain it? | By Mike Magee, MD
According to Beverage Marketing Corporation, every man, woman and child in the United States ingests 192 gallons of liquid a year. That translates to about 3.7 gallons per week or two liters a day. Of that amount, approximated 14 percent are alcoholic beverages. Of the rest, carbonated sodas, at 28 percent, have the lead but are dropping slightly in popularity. They are giving way, in part, to water, which now represents 11 percent of U.S. liquid consumption, about the same amount as milk consumption, and about the same amount as coffee and tea combined.
The move to water is certainly preferable to carbonated beverages, which have their own range of issues, not the least of which is childhood obesity. But the increase in water consumption is not without controversy. Consider the issue, for example, of bottled water: 45 billion gallons were purchased and consumed in 2005. The market for bottled water has expanded nearly 100% percent between 1999 and 2006, with a combined annual growth rate approaching 10 percent.1 The United States leads the pack in total consumption, representing 17 percent of the global use in 2004. Mexico, China, Brazil and Italy rank second, third, fourth and fifth in the world.2
The marketing appeals for bottled water – purer, safer, healthier – are fundamentally inaccurate. The reality is that public tap water is remarkably safe – it’s regularly tested in the United States for 103 contaminants and 80 microbes and industrial agents. More than 90 percent of those tests reveal water that exceeds EPA and FDA standards.3 In fact, our everyday water is more tightly regulated and more frequently tested, by far, compared to the bottled variety. Not too surprising since at least 25 percent of bottled water comes right from the tap.4
But in one area, bottled water far surpasses our everyday water and that area is price. Ounce for ounce, it is more expensive than gasoline. The worldwide spending in 2005 was more than $45 billion, with the United States contributing nearly 20 percent at $9.8 billion.1,4 To get a sense of the relative cost, consider an analysis of local tap water against three bottled varieties in Massachusetts. The public water came from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) and used ozone for purification. It cost consumers two-tenths of a cent per gallon and was delivered to the tap. Interestingly, one of the three bottled varieties came from the Water Department in Ayer, Massachusetts, and was also purified with ozonation technology. But it cost $6.82 a gallon, more than 3,000 times the cost of regular water, and you had to carry it home from the supermarket.5
Paradoxically, while you pay more, you actually get less. This is certainly the case when it comes to oversight. One 1999 independent analysis of 1,000 bottles of water representing 103 different brands found that one-third did not meet state or bottled water industry standards for bacteria or contaminants.6 Second, bottled water, even though at least 25 percent originates at the tap, is examined less critically than regular water. As FDA chemist Dr. Henry Kim said in 2002, “Because the FDA experience over the years has shown that bottled water poses no significant public health risk, we consider bottled water not to be a high-risk food.”7
Beyond the sheer waste of money in purchasing water that you could “bottle” yourself from your own tap, consider the environmental impact. All that packaging, including a remarkable 1.5 million tons per year of plastic, must find its way into U.S. landfills.4 There’s also the cost of shipping, packaging, labeling. And the labels are embarrassing. Spring water? According to the FDA, you can label a product “spring water” if you believe the underground source you’re pumping it from ultimately feeds a spring.7
Considering all of the above, it is not surprising that there is a major push underway to purchase reusable water bottles, and to bottle your own from the tap. Studies have shown that the market growth in bottled water reflects public opinion that it is a healthier alternative to carbonated beverages, and that it plays to the needs and desire for convenience in our increasingly mobile society. Owning the bottle and filling from the tap fulfills both needs at a fraction of the cost. The only problem - is the plastic safe?
As it turns out, this is a remarkably complex question, and science still lacks a complete answer. What do we know? First, all plastic is derived from chemicals, and these chemicals theoretically have the ability over time to leach back into water contained in the bottle. Second, most plastic bottles have a number from one to seven stamped on their base, denoting the chemical composition of the bottle. For example, number one bottles are made from a petroleum based material called polyethylene tetephthalate or PET for short. These are commonly used to contain water, soda and juice. Number seven bottles are made of the harder polycarbonate plastic called Nalgene. These contain the chemical bisphenol A. Health concerns have been raised about both phthalates in the number one bottles and bisphenol A in the number seven bottles, though exposures levels from leaching, and thus the risk of contamination appears to be low. The third thing we know is that most are now recommending that we use bottles made of high density polyethylene (number-two bottles) or made of polypropylene (number-five bottles), for water containment. Finally, the bottles should be cleaned between uses to avoid bacterial contamination.8
One last thing: As we spend some $10 billion per year in the United States on bottled water, 1.3 billion global citizens suffer from poor access to adequate amounts of clean pure water and 1.8 billion global citizens lack adequate sanitation. The cost of correcting these ills is also about $10 billion a year.9 So as you carefully begin to bottle your own water, please visit our water website, www.healthy-water.org, where you will find reputable charities and programs to contribute your savings to in order to help others in desperate need of healthy water and sanitation.
For Health Commentary, I'm Mike Magee.
References
1. Beverage Marketing Corporation Web site. "Bottled Water 2006: U.S. and International Developments and Statistics."
2. The World Fact Book.
3. Carpenter TE. "Water Down the Drain?" Newsweek. Aug. 23, 2005.
4. Standage T. "Bad to the Last Drop." The New York Times. Aug. 1, 2005.
5. Mohl B. "Water Wars." The Boston Globe. Sept. 18, 2005.
6. Natural Resources Defense Council Web site. "Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype."
7. Bullers AC. "Bottled Water: Better Than the Tap?" U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Consumer magazine. July-August 2002.
8. Tugend A. The (Possible) Perils of Being Thirsty While Being Green. New York Times. C5, January 5, 2008
9. Magee M. Healthy Waters. 2005. Spencer Books, New York
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