by diy naturally 10.16 It’s just what we’ve all suspected – pure, “straight from the mountains” bottled water is not so pure after all.
Comprehensive testing by the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog group dedicated to using the power of public information to protect public health and the environment, has shown that our bottled water contains disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, pain medication and much more.
They tested every brand of bottled water, from Walmart’s Sam’s Choice to Giant Supermarket’s Acadia brands and found that 10 brands were contaminated with caffeine, pharmaceuticals like Tylenol, heavy metals and minerals including arsenic, and fertilizer residues like nitrate and ammonia.
Unlike tap water, the bottled water industry does not have to disclose the results of any contamination tests. So we have no idea how pure or how contaminated their bottled water really is. It could be water from a garden hose for all we know. Instead, they hope that we trust their marketing position of pure mountain springs and our assumption that bottled water is better than average tap water. That bottled water is held even to a higher standard.
But the study by EWG shows that bottled water cannot be trusted and is certainly not better than tap water.
Laboratory tests conducted for EWG at one of the country’s leading water quality laboratories found that 10 popular brands of bottled water, purchased from grocery stores and other retailers in 9 states and the District of Columbia, contained 38 chemical pollutants altogether, with an average of 8 contaminants in each brand.
This study shows that not only are we not getting what we pay for, $2+ for a bottle of water, we are also exposing ourselves unnecessarily to known cancer-causing contaminants.
What we can do
- Stop buying bottled water. It’s not as safe as we have been lead to believe and the plastic bottles are wreaking havoc on our environment.
- Drink filtered water instead.
- Carry water in safe containers. Preferably stainless steel or BPA-free bottles.
- Learn what’s in your tap water. Tap water suppliers publish their water quality tests.
- Drink filtered tap water.
- Cook with filtered tap water.
- Change your filters on time. Old filters can harbor bacteria and let contaminants through.
- Install a whole house filter for extra protection.
Some fast facts about water bottles
- 1.5 million barrels of oil are used every year to make plastic water bottles for bottled water. This is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.
- 36 billion bottles are sold each year, only 7 billion make it to recycling. The other 29 billion bottles end up in landfills, incinerators, litter in streams, oceans and rivers.
