Bottled Water: The good, the bad... oh wait... there is no "good" (unless maybe in a disaster relief situations)
Wow.. I just got done watching a clever documentary about bottled water and the companies that package and sell bottled water called "Tapped" (a link can be found under the "resources" and "recommended" links on my homepage). I mean, I knew bottled water was terrible for the environment. But honestly, the only thing I really knew was that the plastic container sat in landfills for something like a thousand years. There was so much I had to learn.
Did you know that municipal water has to be tested several times a day for contaminates? I didn't. I knew it was tested at some point because I always receive a report in the mail from my local provider.But I didn't know what extent they took in testing. All of the results from those tests are also required to be made public so, at any time, if you're curious about what's in your drinking water you can check out your local municipality's water quality report. Pretty great, right? I think so! I always want to know what's in things I'm consuming. However, the same testing can't be said for bottled water. According to the documentary, the FDA states that the bottled water has to be tested for contaminates "as necessary", but the results don't have to be made public. The FDA doesn't feel it's even necessary for these companies to even test their water for some toxins more than once a year, according to a new final ruling. Fun fact: If the water for bottling is both obtained and sold in the same state, the company responsible for both those actions doesn't have to follow the same guidelines as the FDA requires, but rather the state's. Yikes!
If there are toxins and bacteria in their water, why would these big corps want us to know? Who wants to buy water that's full of nasty stuff? Not me, and I assume you don't want to either. So if we are aware of "bad stuff" in their product and we choose not to buy it, then they would lose money. Corporate greed and product honesty don't seem to go hand in hand.
Wonder what can be present in that "fresh" bottle of water you just purchased? According to the movie and other sources there are phthalates (such as DEHP), BPA, higher allowable lead levels than municipal drinking water, pesticides, and more. Everyone knows BPA is bad. Do you know how bad? Dr. Frederick Vom Saal recently conducted an independent study on the effects of BPA in lab mice. His findings were that at a dose of 25,000 times LOWER than anyone had ever tested before, BPA exposure damaged the entire male reproductive system. That's right: 100% of the male reproductive system was damaged from incredibly low amounts of BPA. I don't think that's something that should be in our water nor anything else we come in contact with on a daily basis.
In conclusion, the education I received from this documentary and the resources sited below have caused me to ban all plastic containers from our house. Now, I don't claim to have never purchased a bottle of water or sports drink. In fact, I have even reused plastic cups from fast food restaurants. But that won't be happening any more! I hope I've inspired you to at least check out the links I've cited below or click on the site for the movie, "Tapped" and watch the trailer. If you have Netflix, the full movie is available there.
Now chant with me: NO MORE PLASTIC BOTTLES! NO MORE PLASTIC BOTTLES!
Resources:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-10-19/pdf/2011-26707.pdf
http://www.tappedthemovie.com/
http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/0902.asp
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