Is Bottled Water Good or Bad?

Bottled water is more expensive than tap water

The amount of bottled water we buy every week in the U.S. alone could circle the globe five times!

It is estimated that in the United States alone that we purchase somewhere between a half a million to a billion bottles of “bottled water” each week. Considering that tap water costs around 4 cents per thousand gallons, we may pay up to 2000% more for bottled water. And what do we do with the empty bottles? We’re told not to fill and reuse them because of the chemicals in the plastic can leach into the water. Some of these chemicals, like BPA and Phthlates are “gender-benders.” These act like natural estrogen and can have adverse effects on both men and women. So the only alternative is to throw them away where they end up in a landfill if not recycled.

Bottled water could potentially be of lower quality than tap water

Few people know that bottled waters are regulated by the United States Federal Drug Administration (US FDA) while tap water is regulated by the US Environmental Agency (US EPA). What this means for safety is that “tap water” is more regulated than “bottled water” as the EPA has more power to enforce its standards than the FDA can. The FDA issued regulations classifying various waters as:

• Artesian well water – water that naturally flows upward from an underground aquifer to a well without the need of a pump.
• Mineral water – water from an underground source that contains at least 250 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved solids consisting of minerals and trace elements. Minerals and trace elements cannot be added artificially to water already labeled as “mineral.”
• Spring water – water that comes from an underground source but flows naturally to the earth’s surface like Artesian well water. It cannot come from any public or municipal water source. The mineral content is less than 250 ppm and cannot have any minerals added after it leaves the source.
• Well water – water that comes from a hole bored or drilled into the ground that goes into an aquifer. It is brought to the surface by a pump. Many homes in the US which do not have access to municipal water use well water.

In addition, any water, regardless of its source, can be treated or filtered. Generally, this is done to modify its taste or to remove undesirable ingredients like pesticides or pollutants. These methods of treatment or filtration are defines as:

• Distillation – Water is vaporized and then recollected. This leaves removes any solid residues including the minerals. In fact, distilled water contains NO minerals.
• Reverse osmosis – This is a common water-purifying process. Water is forced through membranes to remove minerals in the water. This makes “hungry water,” water that may help remove further minerals from your body.
• Deionization – This is also called “ion exchange” or “demineralization.” In this process, synthetic resins removes ions and minerals from the water. This does not remove organic, bacterial, pathogenic or particulate matter efficiently. There is no magnesium in deionized water.
• Absolute 1 micron filtration – In this process, water is passed through filters that remove any particles larger than 1 micron in size. Cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes intestinal infections can be removed by this process. The mineral content of the water is unchanged.
• Ozonation – This is a process that many bottled water companies use to kill bacteria without having to use chlorine.

Several years ago, the bottlers of Fiji Natural Artesian Water started an advertising campaign stating that their bottled water from an ancient sustainable aquifer was better than the tap water in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland Municipal Water fought back and analyzed the Fiji water and their own tap water. What they found was that Fiji water contained arsenic, while its water had none. So bottled waters may contain undesirable ingredients, like arsenic.

Watch the video below to see more about the dangers of bottled waters.

There are 750 million people around the world who don’t have access to clean water.

The sad fact is that almost 10% of the world’s population have little to no access to clean drinking water. This also includes parts of the United States. Unless charities send in bottled water during emergency situations, even this choice of water is not reasonable. Water is a precious commodity. We can live without food for a long time, but cannot survive without water after 3 or 4 days.

So what’s our best option?

Recently, my wife and I traveled to London and Paris to celebrate a belated anniversary.

We were told that the tap water in these two cities was safe. I only drank water from my non-toxic water bottle with a filter that removes up to 99.999994% of all impurities. My wife chose to drink tap water. After a few days, she became ill from the water. She began drinking our filtered water and her symptoms went away. For more information on these water filtration bottles, please click on the following link: Puritii Water Filtration Bottles.

More more information on the extent of the world’s water pollution, please see the video below.