Study: There Is All Kinds Of Nasty Crap In Your Bottled Water
A new study challenging the idea that bottled water is "purer" than tap water found a laundry list of nasty substances in major brand name water, and named two brands that exceeded California's health standards.
Here are a few choice goodies found in the water: Coliform bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium.
All brands met the federal standards for drinking water, though researchers were concerned enough about two of the brands to release their names.
Sam's Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets contained chlorine byproducts above California's (stricter) standards, according to the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, an organization founded by scientists that advocates stricter regulation.
From USAToday:
In the Wal-Mart and Giant Food bottled water, the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known as trihalomethanes, was over 35 parts per billion. California requires 10 parts per billion or less, and the industry's International Bottled Water Association makes 10 its voluntary guideline. The federal limit is 80.
Water researcher Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment of the University at Albany, who had no role in the study, singled out trihalomethanes as the biggest concern because of strong research links to cancer.
"These are levels that should not be in bottled water," he said.
Giant Food officials declined to comment. Instead, company officials released a brief statement asserting that Acadia meets all regulatory standards.
Acadia is sold in the mid-Atlantic states, so it isn't held to California's standard. In most places, bottled water must meet roughly the same federal standards as tap water.
The researchers also said the Wal-Mart brand exceeded California's limit by five times for a second chlorine byproduct, bromodichloromethane.
The Environmental Working Group said it notified California's attorney general of its intent to sue Wal-Mart. The group wants the company to label its bottles in California with a warning of cancer-causing chemicals. Wal-Mart did not respond to a request for comment.
Ultimately, the researchers concluded that bottled water was, in some cases, no less polluted than tap water, and a waste of money. They recommended filtering tap water yourself.
Group: Wal-Mart, Giant bottled water shows more contamination [USAToday]
Attention, Walmart shoppers! This ad is for you! Woo hoo!
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Comments:
I got one of those filters on the door of my fridge. The water out of it tastes better than any bottle water I ever drank.
I can never drink the bottled "purified" tap water products, like Coca-Cola's Aquafina. I always taste the chlorine, while most around me cannot. For me, it's spring water only.
Pssh... I'm not surprised. What do ya expect? The minerals of mineral water are partly feces, since minerals= rocks, animals sh- on rocks. End of story.
DAMN. I drink Acadia water by the gallon. My house has well water, which while safe to drink, has carbon, sulfur, iron, etc... which makes it taste terrible. I say this as I have a gallon of their water right by my side. I have tried all the local stores water, and I liked Acadia the best.
Filtering your own water obviously makes more sense for saving money (and apparently, safer for you).
But so does grilling your own hamburgers and McDonalds still makes a lot of money.
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: BTW, I can't filter cheaply as the filters clog usually in less than a month, and also, as soon as any sulfur gets captured by the filter, the water smells like rotten eggs till you change it. And this is water that passes through a whole house filter, THEN a carbon filter at the tap.
Bottled water is bad just from the facts that the plastic bottles are wasteful and the amount of energy and resources used to transport them across the country and world is wasteful/polluting. The fact that there's crap in it too is just another good reason to buy a filter for your tap water.
@MikeF74: Coke's bottled water is Dasani, Pepsi bottles Aquafina. Both are just soda without the carbonation or syrup.
Looks like Sam chooses poisoned water!
@nikkimarie918: I cannot put together a Jr Bacon Cheeseburger for $1 like I can get from Wendy's. It just cannot be done. I live alone and it is not cost effective for me to purchase all of the ingredients. Water on the other hand is easy.
And people still make fun of me because I choose to drink "nasty" tap water instead of "cleaner" bottled water.
That'll show 'em
Municipal Water has Federal regulations under the EPA. Whereas bottled water is considered a food product and is only regulated if it is bottled and sold across state lines. If the product never crosses a state line then it's up to individual states to regulate it.
Bottled water is really just more convenient than bottling it yourself.
@MikeF74: "Yeah, because when I think 'clean water', I think Coke and Pepsi."
and
"To me, Aquafina means 'the end of water'."
Oh Mr. Black, how I love thee.
I wonder if "an organization founded by scientists that advocates stricter regulation" might be completely objective ...
It amazes me how much of this shit people buy. I was in the grocery store the other day with my roommate and she was ecstatic that she found a "great deal" on some bottled water. I'm pretty sure I get a better deal on my tap water then she does on her bottled.
This reminds me that I need to get new filters for my Brita.
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: @Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: @taylorhempel:
Well, and most bottled water (if you look at the ingredients) has sodium in it.
Granted this is probably for taste, but what else does salt do to you?
Everybody say it with me now..."makes you thirsty!" That's right! Good job everyone! SO proud! ;)
/sarcasm off :D
@chadbailey: I switched to Brita filtering a few months ago, and it's been good so far except I still drink bottled water at work, since I almost never drink soda and the machines here only have soda or nasty juice. That, and I don't like dirtying up glasses at home for water.
@MrEvil: According to Alton Brown:
Bottled water falls under the watchful eye of the Food and Drug Administration, which is required to uphold the standards set for tap water by the Environmental Protection Agency. Although state governments may adopt higher standards, although there have been no incidents of food-borne illness attributed to bottled water, there is no reason to assume that it is safer than what is supplied by your municipality.
[goodeatsfanpage.com]
@chadbailey: This explains KFC's new commercials strategy of "You can't make it cheaper than you can buy it from us."
@Angryrider: To clarify, for something to be considered a "mineral" it has to be naturally occuring and produced through a geological process. Few toxic substances, and all feces fail to meet that qualification.
Now I have to go dunk my head in water as pennance for being the nit-picking asshat.
Sometimes I buy bottled water for convenience's sake (yes I know I could easily fill up any bottle) just because it's easier to grab a bottle and run. I buy the cheapest store brand though, and at under $4 for 24 bottles, it is worth it to me (I filter my water using a Brita pitcher at home). I do however, laugh at the people grabbing cases of Aquafina which costs more than the store brand water that actually comes from some sort of Spring.
Surprise, California is convinced something else causes cancer...
This doesn't surprise me a bit. When I was pregnant, and my sense of smell went ultra sensitive, I couldn't drink any water bottled in plastic. I could smell the plastic itself, and when faced with some brands, including aquafina, I could smell the other crap in them as well. I couldn't even drink water from our Brita filter. But I could drink water from a Pur filter, and one type bottled in glass (yea, I know, carbon footprint, blah, blah, blah). Now I use a Kleen Kanteen, and it may be the best purchase I've ever made.
I'm taking an environmental engineering class at the moment and we're covering drinking water right now. Honestly, I feel better drinking from the tap knowing it's covered by the EPA and completely understanding the process that they use to treat the water - from the source until it comes out of the pipe. Bottled water can really get questionable because I really don't think the FDA has the ability to manage all it along with everything else that it has to take care of.
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: My issue with bottled water has never really been the toxicity levels in relation to the locally available water supply, but more the efficientcy of the whole process. The last statistic I recall (what's with that huge grain of salt...ooooh) a bottle of water required over 5x the volume it contained to produce and market it. It's asinine.
Your situation is different thowever where the locally available supply isn't palletable, and filtering is both expensive and inefficient. If you were interested in it though, there are other alternatives. You could attempt to distill your well water (which could have cursory benefits), or if you get a lot of direct sunlight, you could do a solar-evaporation method (like is used for desalination). Or you could continue to buy bottled water because it's easy and doesn't taste like sulfer.
@taylorhempel: Actually, if taken properly salt can help you keep properly hydrated. Granted this requires the consumption of additional water after the salt, but if it's in the water anyway that isn't an issue. Most survival literature will have a bit about this where you are essentially pulling the water from you body with the salt, and then providing it with plenty of water to resuply with. You're body will absorbe more than it lost from the salt.
Ultimately, the researchers concluded that bottled water was, in some cases, no less polluted than tap water, and a waste of money.
It's entirely unsurprising that bottled water is no less polluted than tap water, considering that the vast majority of bottled water is bottled from municipal (read: tap) water sources.
Combined with the fact that the bottles themselves end up in landfills, and the plastic and transportation involved are an excessive use of petroleum in various forms, bottled water is all around a VERY bad deal for both the consumer and the environment. The advantage of bottled water is the convenience of carrying it with you, but a Nalgene bottle fixes that problem quickly.
The US has some of the most stringent public water supply quality standards, and it's a shame we don't take advantage of them more often. Many many other countries (even developed ones) don't have the same level of free, publicly accessible potable water that the US does.
Be careful that the pharm industry doesn't try to sue to recover lost revenue from all their chemicals in the water without paying for it. And if you think the FDA/EPA is going to protect you, just ask yourself what happened to the economy, New Orleans and others. The government is great at collecting taxes and transferring wealth. But outside of that, I'm not a believer.
People dumb enough to pay for bottled water have $hit for brains ... why not drink some of it ?
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: I think the "watchful eye of the Food and Drug Administration" bit should set off warning bells for everyone.
Bottled water is such a scam and so many people willingly buy it, even people who aren't crazy about impurities and so on. Probably once every six months, I buy like a six pack of bottled water, drink those over a few days, and then just fill up the bottles with tap. The bottles are convenient to bring to work/gym/etc. I fill them from the tap and put them in the fridge. Now, I'm no water conoseiur so maybe I'm missing something, but I can confidently say that I cannot tell any difference between tap water that's been in the fridge and bottled water.
We've got the cleanest, best tasting water in human history, and for daily consumption, it's pretty much free (that is to say, if you drink 8 glasses of water a day, it'll cost you like less than $0.02), but people willingly pay $5 for a 12 pack of plastic bottles every time they turn around.
@dragonfire81: I never understood that. I grew up on tap water, was never sick (no more than the normal child who refused to wear a coat when playing) and I still drink tap water.
Clean is one thing but I just think it's unnatural to sterilize and make everything antibacterial. How else will your body know how to fight things off if it's never exposed to anything to built up antibodies.
You can pretty much identify dirty water if you look. Tap is fine for me.
"Coliform bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium."
Sounds like the makings of a great weekend to me...
We drink bottled water.
We fill the same 8 bottles with tap water and put them in the fridge. Then we have cold, fresh bottled water anytime we want.
@mbz32190:
I consider fiji water to be a luxury item, which I indulge in on a very rare basis. Otherwise, yeah Brita pitcher for me.
@jaydez: unfiltered tap water tastes better than bottled water, depending on where you are. Likewise, REAL spring water has a fresh, sweet taste. Bottled water does not taste good.
From my office I could see them filling the Arrowhead water into the trucks. I found out from one of the drivers that there is only 10% Arrowhead water in any of the water at any given time.
It tastes better than my tap water, I don't want to bother with filters and I like the convenience of the package.
@VA_White: You pay for filters, which still have a ridiculously low number of uses. And depending on your setup, you paid for the device the filter goes in as well. And you pay for the water. So "almost nothing" is really an ambiguous amount.
I drink tap water right out of the tap.
I don't get what the obsession with "purer" water is, but if you want "pure" water, purchase your own filtration systems. They might be a good idea if you live in an older building where the pipes are lousy, and they will always cost less and be more effective than bottled water. Which is inevitably bottled tapwater with a nice label.
Wal-Mart sells crappy water? In other news, the sky is blue and your dog wants steak.
I really think bottled water is a total racket. We filter at the sink here and pay almost nothing for it.