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Bottled Water No Different Than Tap Water?
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| girllovingtvibe |
"Op-Ed Contributor
Bad to the Last Drop
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By TOM STANDAGE
Published: August 1, 2005
London
IT'S summertime, and odds are that at some point during your day you'll reach for a nice cold bottle of water. But before you do, you might want to consider the results of an experiment I conducted with some friends one summer evening last year. On the table were 10 bottles of water, several rows of glasses and some paper for recording our impressions. We were to evaluate samples from each bottle for appearance, odor, flavor, mouth, feel and aftertaste - and our aim was to identify the interloper among the famous names. One of our bottles had been filled from the tap. Would we spot it?
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We worked our way through the samples, writing scores for each one. None of us could detect any odor, even when swilling water around in large wine glasses, but other differences between the waters were instantly apparent. Between sips, we cleansed our palates with wine. (It seemed only fair, since water serves the same function at a wine tasting.)
The variation between waters was wide, yet the water from the tap did not stand out: only one of us correctly identified it. This simple experiment seemed to confirm that most people cannot tell the difference between tap water and bottled water. Yet they buy it anyway - and in enormous quantities.
In 2004, Americans, on average, drank 24 gallons of bottled water, making it second only to carbonated soft drinks in popularity. Furthermore, consumption of bottled water is growing more quickly than that of soft drinks and has more than doubled in the past decade. This year, Americans will spend around $9.8 billion on bottled water, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
Ounce for ounce, it costs more than gasoline, even at today's high gasoline prices; depending on the brand, it costs 250 to 10,000 times more than tap water. Globally, bottled water is now a $46 billion industry. Why has it become so popular?
It cannot be the taste, since most people cannot tell the difference in a blind tasting. Much bottled water is, in any case, derived from municipal water supplies, though it is sometimes filtered, or has additional minerals added to it.
Nor is there any health or nutritional benefit to drinking bottled water over tap water. In one study, published in The Archives of Family Medicine, researchers compared bottled water with tap water from Cleveland, and found that nearly a quarter of the samples of bottled water had significantly higher levels of bacteria. The scientists concluded that "use of bottled water on the assumption of purity can be misguided." Another study carried out at the University of Geneva found that bottled water was no better from a nutritional point of view than ordinary tap water.
Admittedly, both kinds of water suffer from occasional contamination problems, but tap water is more stringently monitored and tightly regulated than bottled water. New York City tap water, for example, was tested 430,600 times during 2004 alone.
What of the idea that drinking bottled water allows you to avoid the chemicals that are sometimes added to tap water? Alas, some bottled waters contain the same chemicals anyway - and they are, in any case, unavoidable.
Researchers at the University of Texas found that showers and dishwashers liberate trace amounts of chemicals from municipal water supplies into the air. Squirting hot water through a nozzle, to produce a fine spray, increases the surface area of water in contact with the air, liberating dissolved substances in a process known as "stripping." So if you want to avoid those chemicals for some reason, drinking bottled water is not enough. You will also have to wear a gas mask in the shower, and when unloading the dishwasher.
Bottled water is undeniably more fashionable and portable than tap water. The practice of carrying a small bottle, pioneered by supermodels, has become commonplace. But despite its association with purity and cleanliness, bottled water is bad for the environment. It is shipped at vast expense from one part of the world to another, is then kept refrigerated before sale, and causes huge numbers of plastic bottles to go into landfills.
Of course, tap water is not so abundant in the developing world. And that is ultimately why I find the illogical enthusiasm for bottled water not simply peculiar, but distasteful. For those of us in the developed world, safe water is now so abundant that we can afford to shun the tap water under our noses, and drink bottled water instead: our choice of water has become a lifestyle option. For many people in the developing world, however, access to water remains a matter of life or death.
More than 2.6 billion people, or more than 40 percent of the world's population, lack basic sanitation, and more than one billion people lack reliable access to safe drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of all illness in the world is due to water-borne diseases, and that at any given time, around half of the people in the developing world are suffering from diseases associated with inadequate water or sanitation, which kill around five million people a year.
Widespread illness also makes countries less productive, more dependent on outside aid, and less able to lift themselves out of poverty. One of the main reasons girls do not go to school in many parts of the developing world is that they have to spend so much time fetching water from distant wells.
Clean water could be provided to everyone on earth for an outlay of $1.7 billion a year beyond current spending on water projects, according to the International Water Management Institute. Improving sanitation, which is just as important, would cost a further $9.3 billion per year. This is less than a quarter of global annual spending on bottled water.
I have no objections to people drinking bottled water in the developing world; it is often the only safe supply. But it would surely be better if they had access to safe tap water instead. The logical response, for those of us in the developed world, is to stop spending money on bottled water and to give the money to water charities.
If you don't believe me about the taste, then set up a tasting, and see if you really can tell the difference. A water tasting is fun, and you may be surprised by the results. There is no danger of a hangover. But you may well conclude, as I have, that bottled water has an unacceptably bitter taste."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/01/o...&pagewanted=all |
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| Tunnel Rat |
This shouldn't be surprising to people. Bottled water is nothing more than a perfectly executed marketing campaign by Aquafina, Dasani, etc.; most of which are owned by soft drink manufacturing companies. They are double-dipping into may people's wallets and consumers don't even know it.
After the Walkerton tragedy...you better believe provincial/municipal governments are going to the same lengths to ensure our tap water is safe as Coke and Pepsi do to purify their bottled water. |
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| DarkWater |
| naya tastes a thousand times better than any tap water I've ever drank |
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| malek |
| McGill had released a study some years ago reaching the same conclusions... worse, some bottled water are not that healthy actually... |
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| amb_ |
| quote: | Bottled Water - what's in a label?
CBC News Online | July 27, 2005
Sales of bottled water are booming around the globe. According to the World Wildlife Fund, it's the fastest-growing beverage sector in the world, worth about $33 billion CDN.
It's so big, both Coke and Pepsi have waded into the market with their own brands.
So far, there are no scientific studies that indicate bottled water is healthier for you than tap water. Bottled water, however, does not contain chlorine or fluoride.
What makes one brand different than the other? You may notice a number of terms listed on the label.
Bottled water can come from any source.
Here's a quick reference guide to what it all means.
Mineral and Spring Water - must come from an underground source (not a public water supply) and can't be changed in any way by chemicals. Mineral water has a higher amount of dissolved mineral salts.
Bottled Water - water from any source that can be distilled or carbonated or treated in any other way. The water in "Dasani" (owned by Coca-Cola) comes from municipal supplies in Brampton, Ont. and Calgary - straight out of the tap. (Pepsi owns "Aquafina.")
Artesian Water/Artesian Well Water - bottled water from a well that taps a confined aquifer (a water-bearing underground layer of rock or sand) in which the water level stands at some height above the top of the aquifer.
Sparkling Water - water that has been carbonated. Soda water, seltzer water and tonic water are not considered bottled waters.
Glacial Water - water from a source directly from a glacier.
Natural Water - water (such as spring, mineral, artesian or well water) obtained from an approved underground source and not from a municipal or public water supply system. This water has undergone no treatment other than physical filtration and iron removal.
Purified Water - water produced by distillation, de-ionization or reverse osmosis, which contains not more than 10 mg/L of total dissolved solids.
What's in the water?
Mineral water:
* Naturally-carbonated natural mineral water is water which, after treatment, replacement of gas and packaging, has the same content of gas from the source.
* Non-carbonated natural mineral water is water which, after treatment and packaging, prevents hydrogen carbonate salts from dissolving.
* De-carbonated natural mineral water is water which after treatment, does not have the same carbon dioxide content as when it first came out of the ground.
* Carbonated natural mineral water is water which, after treatment and packaging, has been made bubbly by adding carbon dioxide.
* Demineralized - the dissolved solids (minerals) have been removed.
* Re-mineralized - after filtration that removes all the solids, some are put back in.
* Ozonized - ozone is added to kill bacteria.
* Super-oxygenated - oxygen is added, most of which escapes when you twist the cap. |
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumertips/ |
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| smuncky |
| Glacial Water is the best water i have ever tasted. too bad it costs a lot and u gotta know where to find it |
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| joinT |
| remember not to re-use plastic water bottles for very long.. once opened they slowly deteriorate and crap gets into the water.. |
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| InfectedCluster |
| I can see buying water bottles in certain places like countries where you know its not safe to do so or maybe the party where they don't allow you in with your own supply (not to mention countless other reasons). I think over all though it is very silly and these companies are laughing themselves rich. I just save my pennies and stick to the tap. |
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| Tunnel Rat |
| quote: | Originally posted by InfectedCluster
I can see buying water bottles in certain places like countries where you know its not safe to do so ... |
Bottled water is not sold in many of these countries, which makes it even more silly. People buy the most bottled water in countries that have the safest tap water on earth. Inform yourselves consumers!!!!....or maybe I should say wake up and realize that a water bottle shouldn't be considered an fashionable accessory. |
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| Playa24_7 |
| Dasani does taste fackin wicked though. I dont care what anyone says. |
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| bass drive |
I don't tink it's a good idea to drink straight from the tap.
installing some filter would be a better idea imo.
btw, these damn soft drinks filtered water is a rip-off.
I belive botled water should at least be spring water. |
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| Euphorica |
water isnt supposed to taste like anything.
most bottled water is the same as tap water...its just filtered more.
there are some that are authentic/better water though.
I do use a brita filter at home though. Cuts back on the metal/sewer taste that the tap typically has. |
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