Bottled Water is No Guarantee of Purity Yes, about 40 percent of bottled water IS regular tap water, which may or may not have received any additional treatment. In fact, most municipal tap water must 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. Another independent test performed by the Environmental Working Group in 2009 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 Bacteria Another health hazard that can be found in both tap and bottled water is fluoride. Many make the mistake of thinking bottled water is unflouridated, but thats not the case at all. Some bottled waters even make a point of adding fluoride, so the only way to ensure the water youre drinking is fluoride-free is to have access to the water quality test results. However, bottled water has yet another significant drawback. Aside from the fact that many of them are little more than tap water of questionable purity (since most companies refuse to provide the necessary information to determine water quality), the bottle itself is extremely detrimental to the environment, and can further contaminate the water inside it.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 20:06:39 +0000
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