The Big Secret Commercial Water Companies Hope You Never Discover…

“Bottled Water Matters” is a front group for the International Bottled Water Association. Some time ago, they began releasing YouTube videos.
In the latest video, available at the link below, their star performer takes to the streets and urges consumers to join the movement and fight those who wish to get rid of bottled water.

“There are people who want to take your choice away,” she says. “People who want bottled water off store shelves because they think it’s unnecessary. But you know that’s not true.”
Ecorazzi sums up the problem with this nicely:

“Let’s not even talk about the fact that besides polluting the world in a big way, bottled water is often less regulated than tap and, when compared, consistently loses tastes tests.”

Sources:

  Ecorazzi September 10, 2010

The Truth about Bottled Water

There are many problems with bottled water, but the most obvious is the fact that you’re paying a premium for something that is in many cases indistinguishable from regular tap water.
Bottled water typically costs more than $1.50 per bottle, which is 1,900 times the price of tap water. But, about 40 percent of bottled water IS regular tap water, which may or may not have received any additional treatment.
Most municipal tap water must actually adhere to stricter purity standards than the bottled water industry. The EPA requires large public water suppliers to test for contaminants as often as several times a day, but the FDA requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year, or once every four years, depending on the contaminant.
So if you think water that comes in a bottle is automatically pure, think again.
An independent test performed by the Environmental Working Group revealed 38 low-level contaminants in bottled water, with each of the 10 tested brands containing an average of eight chemicals including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic, and bacteria.
Fluoride (a highly toxic bone poison that should be avoided at all costs) is usually present in both tap water and filtered bottled water. Many bottled waters actually make a point of adding fluoride back into the water, so if you are drinking bottled water please make sure yours is fluoride free. The toxic metal antimony (a silvery white metal of medium hardness) has also been found in many commercially bottled water brands.
When you drink bottled water, not only is the water itself potentially contaminated, but the bottle it comes in often poses serious problems of its own.

Drinking from Plastic Bottles is Not a Good Idea

Plastic often used to make water bottles contains chemicals like BPA and phthalates, which mimic hormones in your body -- and which can leach from the bottle during normal consumption. If you leave your water bottle in a hot car or reuse it, your exposure is magnified because heat and stress increase the amount of chemicals that leach out of the plastic, into the water, and then into your body when you consume it.
This is concerning, as even tiny concentrations can cause problems such as:

• Structural damage to your brain
• Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning
• Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
• Altered immune function
• Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, and ovarian dysfunction
• Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior
• Stimulation of prostate cancer cells
• Increased prostate size, and decreased sperm production

So the container your water comes in should receive just as much attention as the water itself, and plastic is simply not a wise choice for a beverage holder from a health perspective … not to mention the extreme amounts of waste -- 1,500 water bottles are thrown away every second!
National Geographic cited one statistic that the U.S. public goes through 50 billion water bottles every year … and most of those are never recycled! No wonder large portions of our oceans are essentially turning into plastic.
The manufacturing process of the bottles is also an environmental concern. About 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to manufacture water bottles each year around the world, and the processing itself releases toxic compounds like nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene.
Also extremely harmful to the environment is the way corporations are pumping water from underground aquifers. These natural springs serve as water sources for nearby streams, wells and farms, but the aggressive pumping can easily dry them out prematurely.