If you’re buying bottled water for your health, think again. Sure, fresh clean FIJI water SOUNDS nice in the ads — but what’re you really buying — and really drinking? Here are 10 reasons to ditch the bottle and take back the tap:
1. Tap water’s safer. As Food and Water Watch points out, 70% of bottled water produced and sold within states is exempt from FDA regulation, and a good 1/3 “of tested bottled water brands violated, in at least one sample, an enforceable standard or exceeded microbiological-purity guidelines.” Tap water, on the other hand, falls under EPA’s testing requirements, which’re much more stringent.
2. Tap water’s way cheaper. As an NY Times editorial points out, “almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands. Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.”
3. Safer bottled water is — tap water. Many bottled water companies just repackage tap water into plastic bottles, then sell ‘em back to you at prices higher than gas. Aquifina, for ex, has finally been pressured into changing its labels to let consumers know Aquifina water comes from tap water. Why not just — drink tap water? (via LAist)
4. Plastic bottles leach chemicals. Wonder why your plastic bottle of water has a lil warning telling you not to reuse it? The longer you have that bottle, the more likely it is to leach gross chemicals into your water.
5. Carbon-filtered tap water’s safer and cheaper than bottled water. According to the Environmental Working Group, “carbon filtration of tap water will dramatically lower levels of toxic disinfection byproducts; it is also 10 to 20 times less expensive than bottled water, and does not produce the waste and pollution associated with the packaging and transport of bottled water.” Here’s a damn good guide to picking out the right filtration for your tap water.
6. Tap water tastes just as good. “Side-by-side taste tests between bottle water and treated municipal tap water have often revealed very few discernible difference in taste or quality,” notes WiseGeek.
7. Pollution’s not cool. It takes “1.5 million barrels of oil to make the water bottles Americans use each year,” a NY Times editorial points out. “Add in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but refreshing.” Plus, the recycling rate’s only 23% nationwide.
8. Oil wars really aren’t cool. Buying bottled water’s basically buying plastic, which is made of oil. “When we buy a bottle of water, what we’re often buying is the bottle itself, as much as the water,” says Fast Company. “One of the main problems with bottled water production is the reliance on fossil fuels,” notes WiseGeek. From the packaging to the transportation, bottled water relies on oil.
9. Good drinking water should be public and cheap. “The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America’s public water supply,” notes a NY Times editorial. “That would be a serious loss. Access to cheap, clean water is basic to the nation’s health.”
10. You don’t want to be a sucker to advertising. “When a whole industry grows up around supplying us with something we don’t need–when a whole industry is built on the packaging and the presentation–it’s worth asking how that happened, and what the impact is,” argues Fast Company.
[top image from transguyjay; "Take Back the Tap" image from Food and Water Watch; crossposted on BlogHer]
So many good reasons to shun bottled water. Yet you didn’t mention my number one reason: Litter.
Sure, you can recycle the plastic bottles. But most people don’t. And reducing waste production beats recycling any day.
Comment by Rafi — August 6, 2007 @ 1:10 pm
Tap water is bad for you. No question about this. Claims that it is good come from municipal water companies themselves, and not independent, environmental- health-minded labs. It contains fluoride, chlorine and all sorts of other junk. Fluoride and chlorine are toxic metals that cause human disease and symptomatology. It’s bad. Is it better than bottled water, though? Probably, but that’s not saying much. The best thing to do is to get reverse osmosis water or spring water that is independently verified for its healthfulness. Certainly, it is possible that some bottled waters come from a garden hose in upstate New Jersey. Who knows?
Comment by vic — August 7, 2007 @ 9:34 am
Is the best thing, then, to get something like a Brita to filter the tap?
My refrigerator’s water filter has expired, and so I’ve been drinking tap while wondering if tap is safe or if I’ll grow a third ear or something from drinking it.
Comment by Anonymous — August 7, 2007 @ 1:14 pm
Vic: nearly all bottled water comes from municipal sources (a growing number of brands are now admitting this on their labels). So nearly all of it really is tap water.
And most independent studies have shown that tap water is generally safer. Why? Probably because there are a lot more government regulations on how clean tap water has to be.. bottled water is only barely regulated.
Comment by Tim Buchheim — August 7, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Be careful regarding water filters. Some are a joke. You have to read them very carefully. Some say, for instance, that they remove chlorine ODOR. But odor is not the same as the heavy metal. The best filter is a reverse osmosis system installed under your sink. Read about the dangers of fluoride and you’ll scratch your head wondering why on earth they’d ever put it in our drinking water. Then, of course, you’ll discover that the answer lies in politics like other issues of this ilk.
Here’s just the beginning of the fluoride issue:
http://www.nofluoride.com/
Comment by vic — August 7, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
vic’s solution regarding water: Don’t drink that poison!
More seriously though — the claims I quoted come NOT from the municipal water companies as vic asserts, but from people like Environmental Working Group and Food & Water Watch — nonprofits specifically working toward environmental and consumer safety issues.
And yes — EWG recommends a carbon filter, as stated in the original post. I use a Brita.
No one’s saying tap water’s gonna be the most pristine resource everywhere — but it’s pretty much agreed that it’s gonna be more pristine than bottled water. To seriously warn people against drinking tap water in the US is like seriously warning people not to breathe air cuz there’s pollution.
And the fluoride issue isn’t so cut and dry. Perhaps the no-fluoride people have an ok argument but have unfortunately amassed a rather odd coalition of people with strange agendas, but less partisan news about the issue is hardly warming me up to the no-fluoride side.
Comment by Siel — August 7, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
To be clear, I agree that tap water is more healthful than most bottled waters. Also, I tend to like the work done by EWG. Yet the fluoride issue remains disturbing. Fluoride that goes into the water system is a byproduct of industry, including the phosphate industry. It’s dangerous to human beings. It leaves a toxic residue on the bones and brain. For a little more info on this, go to http://www.mercola.com/2002/sep/18/europe_fluoride.htm and see how Europe is banning the use of fluoride.
Chlorine is another issue. It is also dangerous to humans.
The problem is that politics has a lot to do with what’s put into our tap water. Huge corporations shouldn’t be allowed to mass medicate the public, especially without sufficient evidence of both the benefits of the proposed substance as well as the harmful effects.
Comment by vic — August 8, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
I guess we’re now both clear on the fact that your water worries have little to do with the whole bottled vs. tap debate I was bringing up.
But in any case — EWG recently sent out an email re: the fluoride worries you talk of — Maybe it’s something you can get behind :)
Comment by Siel — August 14, 2007 @ 2:52 pm
My water worries are larger than the tap vs bottle. As I said, I do agree that tap water is most likely better than bottled, but the chemicals and hard metals make ALL water unsafe. And we haven’t even gotten into the issue of the work of Bechtel, Pepsi, et al. who are stealing water and wasting water of other nations!
Comment by vic — August 14, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
One last thing about this water issue. Fluoride and chlorine are halogens, so they compete for receptor sites in the cells, crowding out iodine and thereby affecting the thyroid and every other cell in the body. This may be a cause of cancer. Read David Brownstein, MD, Iodine, Why You Need It. This is an eye-opener about iodine, but at the same time you’ll see what makes halogens so bad for you.
Comment by Vic — May 27, 2008 @ 7:20 am