Water-Say No To Bottled Water

31 May 2012
Read time: 8 min
Category: Archive

Let’s look first, not at the water itself, but at the harmless-looking, portable plastic containers we have grown so fond of carting it around in. Each one of these little bottles requires five times its capacity in water just to manufacture the plastic.1.This process also releases nickel, ethelyne oxide, and benzene into the environment. More than 47 million gallons of oil and natural gas are used to make the 15 million tons of  Poly Ethylene Teraphthalate (PET) that we use annually to bottle water. While it may require less energy to recycle than glass or aluminum, the manufacturing process for PET more than outweighs any benefit by causing environmental pollution and health problems.

We discard more than 30 billion empty plastic water bottles every year. Surely, as conscientious consumers we recycle them, yes? No! Only 14% are recycled(1),leaving 86% in landfills, or just littering the side of the road. It can take up to 1000 years for the plastic to decompose. As it does, the chemicals used to make it seep back into the ground water to contaminate the water supply.

Manufacturers spend hundreds of millions of dollars to convince us that bottled water is the safer, smarter choice. The majority of this expense is packaging, shipping, and, lest we forget, advertising. Every beverage manufacturer touts their own brand as better than anyone else’s. There are huge corporations whose only product is water. They import it, they export it, and they ship it in trucks, boats, planes, and trains. They burn unbelievable amounts of fossil fuel to transport more than 5 trillion gallons of water internationally each year. These numbers actually grow by 12% every year.(3)

We can have water from Fiji (6,430 miles from North America and 10,300 miles from Europe), or Norway (3,993 miles from North America and 1000 miles from Europe), or France (4175 miles from North America)  and who knows where they will find the next “fountain of youth.”

Corporations take their marketing very seriously and will push the envelope of truth in advertising as far as they can to convince us that we will be “healthier”, “cleaner”, “smarter”, “physically more fit”, and even “sexier” if we just consume their product. Even the names are designed to entice us: Utopia, Ice Mountain, Pure American, and (yes, really) More Precious than Gold. The Environmental Law Foundation sued 8 bottlers for using the word “pure” to sell products that were found to contain bacteria, arsenic, and chlorine byproducts, (which may include bromate, haloacetic acids, chlorite, trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids).

Now, let’s take a look at the water itself. While most people who drink bottled water think it is a safer, healthier alternative to tap water, this is not always the case. I’m sure everyone has at some point asked themselves if the bottled stuff is really any different from the stuff that comes out of the faucet. The truth seems to be more of a trade off than an absolute. In some ways it may be better, but not in others.

There are some areas of the country where the tap water tastes so much like the chemicals used to treat it that it is simply unpalatable. There are other areas where it tastes quite clean. Based on taste, I would take the water straight out of my tap over many of the bottled waters I’ve tried. Unfortunately, purity cannot be gauged on taste alone.

How can we be sure what’s actually in these bottles, anyway? Currently, the regulations for bottled water (as dictated by the FDA since it exports across state lines) are much the same as those established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for public drinking water. In fact, nearly 40% of the bottled water sold today is nothing more than filtered tap water. To its credit, the FDA does now require that the label state “from a municipal source” if that is the case.

A study commissioned by the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) tested for hundreds of chemicals in 38 brands of water sold in California. Six of these brands had chlorine byproducts, six others had measurable levels of the toxic chemical toluene, and two samples were contaminated with arsenic.(2)

Researchers at Ohio State University conducted another study that compared Cleveland’s city tap water to 57 different bottled waters. Fifteen of the brands tested had significantly higher bacteria levels than the tap water causing the scientists to state that “although all the water tested was safe to drink, it is not safe to assume purity just because it’s in a bottle.”

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment tested 80 bottled waters that had been packaged, shipped, and delivered to retailers rather than testing them at the manufacturing facility. All 80 had detectable levels of chlorine, fluoride, and sodium. 78 of them had at least some sign of nitrate (which can cause methemoglobinemia, or blue-baby syndrome in high dosages). Twelve brands had nitrite, 53 had chloroform, 33 contained bromodichloro-methane, 25 had arsenic, and 15 tested positive for lead.(3)

This report goes on to say that 46 of the 80 tested had traces of the carcinogen (and hormone disrupter) phthalate and that 12 of those exceeded federal safety levels for that chemical. It is believed that phthalate could be leaching out of the plastic into the water along with another potential hormone disrupter bispherol A. To make matters worse, the longer the water sits on the shelf, the greater the leaching effect. This in itself is a very good argument for using glass or Lexan containers.(3)

So if tap water isn’t healthy and bottled water is more trouble that its worth, where does that leave us? It leaves us with filters.

Many consumers fear that the tap water is so full of chemicals that a simple filter won’t be enough to purify it. Since the really good filters are expensive, many people just opt for bottled. In truth, water filters come in all shapes and sizes and prices. While this is not a sales pitch for water filters, they are a simple solution for a large—and growing—problem.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, no branch of the US Government endorses, approves, tests, or monitors any home water filter device. So, be wary of any manufacturer who claims to be US Government approved. Do your own research and determine which filter is best for your individual needs and financial situation.

There are simple pitcher and faucet devices, under- and on-counter units, and the elaborate and expensive whole-house units. With water filters, as with most things, you get what you pay for. The more you spend, the purer the end product will be. Regardless of how much you pay, however, you still want to be sure the filter removes some, if not all, of the following: chlorine, mercury, lead, cadmium, benzene, asbestos, pesticides, and plain old pipe sediments. This may require some research on your part.

Visit www.waterfiltercomparisons.net/waterfiltercomparison.cfm for a quick and easy evaluation of some of the less expensive models.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably look at the manufacturing figures above and think: “Even if I totally stopped buying these little plastic poison pills, I don’t drink enough for it to make a dent in these numbers!” Au contraire! If you stop drinking 1 bottle per day, you’ll stop 7300 containers from being produced over the next 20 years. I know there are people, and I’m sure you do to, that currently consume 10 to 20 of these packaged libations every day – you do the math!

Now, I know that I can only take responsibility for myself, but I can try to spread the word about this mindless waste. It’s always been harder for me to continue to do something negative once I learn the truth about it. So please, tell your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers about the bottled water industry. Maybe they’ll change, maybe they won’t, but maybe it will make it just a little more difficult for them to cooperate with this continual and pointless polluting.  If you can’t stop buying these products altogether, at least cut back and be sure to recycle the packaging.

1) www.foodandwaterwatch.org

2) www.nrdc.org/water/drinking

3) www.emagazine.com

Vol 27 Issue 4 page 52

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