Health & Safety

Fall 2007
Concerns Over Bottled Water Justified
Time to Rethink Your Dependence On Costly Convenience
By Nancy Macy

The Union of Concerned Scientists has summarized the major concerns over bottled water that are making headlines locally.  UCS points out that bottled water manufacturers’ marketing campaigns capitalize on isolated instances of contaminated public drinking water supplies by encouraging the perception that their products are purer and safer than tap water.  But the reality is that tap water is actually held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water, and some brands of bottled water are just tap water in disguise. What’s more, our increasing consumption of bottled water—more than 22 gallons per U.S. citizen in 2004 according to the Earth Policy Institute—fuels an unsustainable industry that takes a heavy toll on the environment.

Environmental impacts include enormous amounts of fossil fuel consumption, excessive water waste and massive amounts of waste. Health impacts include disturbing amounts of carcinogens and dioxins in water stored, heated or frozen in #1 PETE and other plastics.  These contaminants increase during storage and transportation long before they arrive on the shelves of your local store.

Obviously bottled water is enormously expensive.  You will spend hundreds of dollars on pennies’ worth of water, just to be able to carry it around with you.  (Check out REI for classy stainless steel water bottles, or simply refill a glass bottle!)

If you are worried about the quality of your water, or the presence of chlorine (legally required to kill viruses and bacteria in pipe systems), a water filter can solve that problem at a much lower price than bottled water.  (Avoid the reverse osmosis machines – they actually waste three to four gallons of water for every gallon they purify for consumption – unless you have severely contaminated water, which is unlikely around here.  More water is hard on your septic system too.)

Please share your ideas for alternatives to individually bottled servings of water with us; contact Nancy Macy at nbbm@cruzio.com or 338-1728.

©2007 Valley Women's Club