Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?

195995 Resource 182418 191501 202310 1201724353619 1214842358688 Controlled Bottled Water Revisited:

If you don't buy it, how best to contain it?

According to Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans drink, on average, 192 gallons of liquid a year. Of that total, water represents about 11 percent of our consumption, about the same amount as milk, and about the same amount as coffee and tea combined. The lead category of liquid consumption is carbonated beverages, at 28 percent. Water consumption seems to be gaining on the carbonated beverages, which is generally a good trend. The market for bottled water expanded nearly 100% percent between 1999 and 2006, with a combined annual growth rate approaching 10 percent. But the increase in water consumption is not without controversy – mostly related to the bottled water industry.   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. In fact, our everyday water is more tightly regulated and more frequently tested, by far, compared to the bottled variety.    Yet bottled-water marketers have convinced the public that their product is essential, charging them relatively steep prices in the process. Ounce for ounce, bottled water is more expensive than gasoline. One study in Massachusetts showed that the full cost of bottled water was $6.82 a gallon, more than 3,000 times the cost of regular water.   It’s ironic that consumers feel safer drinking bottled water, when studies show that it is not as vigorously tested as regular tap water. 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. There’s also the cost of shipping, packaging, labeling.   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. Owning the bottle and filling from the tap does seem to make good sense. The only problem: Is the plastic safe? As it turns out, this is a remarkably complex question, and science still lacks a complete answer. Some plastic bottles are apparently safer than others, but we’re still learning. To find out more about the safety of refilling water bottles – as well as other details about bottled water -- be sure to watch this week’s video, embedded with this blog post, and read the full transcript, below. Then let us know how you feel. Are you comfortable drinking from the tap or from one of the many styles of plastic bottles?   9 application/xml false Mike Magee Public Health water Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype? This Natural Resources Defense Council web site explores the differences between tap water and bottled water. http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp Is Bottled Water Better Than Tap? Newsweek Magazine cites the latest statistics and analysis in this article. http://www.newsweek.com/id/74090 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 allysonw 75.73.96.59 false true false false true 179654 false false true false false false true 196003 Resource 179654 173239 183236 1201730143223 1201795420593 Controlled What about Fluoride and Chlorine?

How to avoid them in the home

I hate to sound argumentative, but as the owner of 3 pets on thyroi dmeds and myself with thyroid disease and ALL of us VERY sensitive to chemicals in our water how can you  say tap water in the USA today is healthy? My cat got Rodent Ulcers from tap water! Repeatedly but not since switchign to reverse osmosis bottled water. I used to think I had asthma, but not since switchign to filtered/bottled water for all my needs 10 application/xml false Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 70.105.136.125 false true false false true 196054 Resource 179654 173239 183236 1201798440269 1201811170512 Controlled Cancer

bottled water IS better

There is a little town named Glenfork, W. Va. (not to be confused with western Virginia) where most of the locals there die of cancer. The most recent change in their environment is a lot of gas wells have been dug and gas lines run all over and through the mountains there. Try telling people THOSENOT to buy bottled water.GH, Tennessee 10 application/xml false Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 74.171.102.232 false true false false true 198009 Resource 179654 173239 183236 1203761195154 1203960523752 Controlled Green Water

Anyway you look at it, it's bad

I live in the desert where we get a lot of run off from the golf courses that furtilize heavily. We also have wells for some of the areas drinking water. So some areas get well drinking water that, which is what we were forced to drink for years always saying it was good. But it tasted so bad I can't even describe how bad it tasted. Then there are those of us who get the underground water well water that tastes like it's filled with chemicals. A few years back a friend of mine saw people from the water authority testing a well and heard it was haserous for human comsumption, yet they covered it up to the public. I now live in gated commnity, and the manager never had the pools cleaned, the water was literally green. One day my daughters were going to get the mail and noticed that the sprinkler water was coming out green. Needless to say our drinking water tasted putrid, and absolutely disgusting. Is there any honesty when it comes to the traumatic condition of our water supplies, which is not just a local condition, but a problem all over the world. Just link on to the Environmental Agency. The answers to how horrible our water situation there on line for all to see. We need to stop believing in these companies out there trying to make a buck, and they are too. Unfortunately, our health is going to pay the price for our ignorance. Wake up America and find healthy altenatives to what we currently have.  10 application/xml false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 67.150.4.252, 64.136.27.26, 64.136.27.227 false true false false true 182418 blog blogsite/HealthCommentary/web