This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 8:23am and is filed under Parenting, Food Safety, Media and information, Labels, Environment, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
According to a study released by the Environmental Working Group, bottled water is no better than filtered tap water, despite being considerably more expensive (not to mention the carbon footprint of bottles and transportation, or the reports of phlalates from the bottles!).
- Many bottled waters use municipal water sources that have been filtered or otherwise purified. As much as I complain about Cameron, TX tap water, I’m not sure I’d rather be drinking water from Las Vegas or Houston.
- Bottled water manufacturers are not required to disclose test results for contaminants, unlike municipal water. The report showed that faith in bottled water purity is not always well-founded
- The same chemical profile is found in many bottled waters as in tap water. Those images of mountain springs don’t have much to do with the source or the purity.
I geeked the study, and it passed the transparency test of having the actual data available. Although somewhat alarmist in its executive summary, the basic truths have not been twisted.
The bottom line: You are better off financially and environmentally buying a good water purification system for your own tap water.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:04am
I have always suspected this was true. Add in the yucky plasticky taste of bottled water once it’s been left in the sunny mini-van during an afternoon soccer match, and I’d rather just drink at the fountain. Thanks, Sara!
October 21st, 2008 at 10:46am
I must confess to being a bottled water “junkie”. No amount of facts is going to help me give up the habit. Bottled water is still the cheapest and easiest thing for me to give to the kids while we out and about. I refuse to think about how many landfills we are filling up with our plastic bottles : ) Actually we are mostly filling up my van, time to go clean it out and I wont tell you how many empty plastic bottles there are!
And I will still continue to go fill up my big 5 gallon water bottles for the house and the store. Now I just have to admit that cost is an extra expense I am willing to pay for convience.
Thanks for the info!