Is Bottled Water Safer Than Tap Water? Please...
Bottled water isn't any safer than tap water, and could actually be more dangerous, according to a report from the Government Accounting Office. The big difference lies in the government regulator: tap water is covered by the Safe Water Drinking Act, administered by the aggressive and powerful Environmental Protection Agency, while bottled water falls under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act overseen by the powerless anything-goes industry-lovers over at the Food and Drug Administration.
In fact, bottled water makers are not required to disclose even as much information as your local municipality. If you live in a city of 10,000 residents or more, you probably receive a copy of a water report each year. The Solid Waste Disposal Act requires that public water systems test tap water for various contaminants using certified laboratories and issue a water-quality report, called the consumer-confidence report (CCR), once a year. (For particularly toxic contaminants, the SWDA requires results to be reported within 24 hours.) The CCR summarizes local drinking water quality, information about the water source, levels of detected contaminants, whether any of the detected contaminants exceed federal levels, as well as information on the potential health effects of certain contaminants. (If you live in a smaller town, consult the EPA's Web site.)
In contrast, bottled water manufacturers don't have to use certified laboratories nor report the results of any water quality testing to the FDA, even if the contaminants exceed federal standards. The GAO study also found that only a small percentage of the 83 bottled water labels looked at, companies contacted, or company Web sites reviewed contained information comparable to that required of tap water.
Consumer Reports tested bottled water in 2000 and found that it was safe when it met FDA standards, which wasn't always the case. All water should be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, but since it isn't, we'll stick with tap water, thank you very much.
Is tap water safer than bottled? [Consumer Reports]
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Eh, I just buy bottled water because it just tastes better than my straight tap water. Plus I'm too cheap to buy a Brita filtering system, though I've heard very good things about 'em.
GAO doesn't stand for Government Accounting Office. It is Government Accountability Office.
Now GAO use to be General Accounting Office until a few years ago but no longer.
Isn't a lot of bottled water just filtered municipal tap water anyway? I remember Pepsi threw a big fit when our city was in a severe drought and there were plans to limit the amount of our water they could take to sell under their brand.
we started using brita filters after i saw the article
[consumerist.com]
i must say it is really worth it, bottled water consumption in my house hold has reduced drastically, this article is going to reduce it further.
@supercereal: Too cheap to buy a Brita, but bottled water is reasonably priced? Drink tap for a couple weeks, save up for the filter; bank the savings.
Bottled water can be noticeably better if it comes from a source upstream compared to your municipal water. A recent Frontline episode talked about water quality in Washington, DC - even EPA scientists said they would never drink DC tap water because of all the endocrine disruptors and other things that come from the downstream Potomac.
Living in DC, I would much rather drink bottled water from an upstream source than the stuff that comes out of the tap... The EPA doesn't regulate endocrine disruptors in ANY water and there is no way to filter or remove it from water -- so water source matters.
Bottled water can be a good way to avoid endocrine disruptors and other things that aren't regulated and you can't remove yourself.
@corkdork:
tap water has a different taste that much I know for sure, Im an avid water drinker and the crap they serve in certain bottled water (like the Coke brand one) is simply cleaned up tap water which is pointless to buy. The good stuff comes from natural springs which are best from outside the US.
@JulesNoctambule:
yup, theres certain brands of bottled water that is simply filtered tap, consummers are too dumb to investigate alternative
This is disingenuous: the article says, "Bottled water isn't any safer than tap water, and could actually be more dangerous, according to a report from the Government Accounting Office." But it doesn't say that. It only says there are differences in testing. While strictly speaking, "could...be" is factually correct, there's no cause to raise an alarm, because there's no evidence that this is the case. It's like saying, Coca Cola is bad for you because the EPA doesn't monitor the water that goes into it. Raising false alarms without any basis in fact is irresponsible. If there *is* basis in fact, then present it.
(And no, I don't work for a water bottling company.)
Let us not forget that people that have wells have to monitor their own water quality. Perhaps we should all take the burden to understand what we ingest.
I disagree. My bottled water is safer than tap water. It goes through 4 different filters before it goes through the reverse osmosis filter, then I bottle it and stick it in the fridge.
@tangent4: The mere existence of the Anacostia seems a pretty good reason to not want to drink DC water either.
we get our water from this windmill type thing. it's the shape of those golf windmill things you have to shoot the ball into but it lacks the fan thing. you just put the gallon under the nozzle and it fills it and we bring that home
no clue where that comes from and what water it uses but I'll never drink tap water I don't buy bottled water tho, just sodas
As someone who worked at an Arrowhead Water bottle plant in Cabazon, CA, this report just pisses me off. We use reverse osmosis and UV filters to kill everything and the water comes from a natural spring piped in, it's way better then any tap water you'll find IMHO.
I'm not sure why everyone is so anti-bottled water. I drink it because I like the taste. That is all the reason I need. If you are content drinking tap water then go right ahead...
A faucet filter or a Brita filter or the ones that go in the refrigerator with an external ice and water dispenser do the job just fine. The water tastes at least as good as the bottled purified tap water and you don't have the plastic bottles to dispose of.
@tangent4: I would not drink DC tap water, either. They say they fixed the lead problem but I don't believe them.
However, I live in the DC suburbs, and I do drink the tap water. I run it through a filter pitcher just because there is some psychological effect to it and I like having it chilled in the refrigerator beforehand. When I lived in Minnesota, filtering was a must because it was so hard and metallic-tasting that it was undrinkable otherwise.
I think bottled water is a waste of money if your tap water is safe, though, and all the bottles are bad for the environment. Aquafina actually tastes quite disgusting, IMO, and Dasani isn't great, either. I do like Evian, Poland Springs, and Deer Park, but 95% of the time I drink tap water.
@anduin: but poland springs is soooooooo good, and I've been drinking it since way before the bottled water fad started
nyc water, best in the world. it is the actual faucet you have to worry about.
i think bottled water came into vogue because faucets at parks were SKEEEEEEEVY if the fountain worked at all.
"drink" water?.....
I'm thirsty not dirty....
@anduin: and then there are certain water supplies (naturally occuring) that are bottled...Belmont Springs used to have a water supply from the town I grew up in.
@Featherstonehaugh: Because unless you've performed a double blind taste test of your chosen brand of bottle water to tap water (which you may have for all I know), then the 'taste' argument may just be in your head.
Also, because of the packaging and shipping, bottled water is more harmful then tap.
@corkdork: Looking at my last receipt, I literally pay 39 cents every couple of weeks for a gallon of store brand bottled water. Yes, that is absolutely more reasonably priced than buying the device and replacement filters.
Unfortunately, just because the water is deemed safe at one point doesn't mean it's safe everywhere. Building pipes vary a LOT, so the same water that's clear at my apartment is yellowish somewhere else (which doesn't necessarily mean it's unsafe, just that *something* is leeching into the water).
The quality of bottled water might be less regulated, but I suspect it's easier to control.
I stopped buying bottled water about a year ago.. I realized that I'd be better off with a Britta system since the water we get from the tap isn't bad.
That said.. If I found a place where they sold bottled water from Australia I would TOTALLY buy it.. because.. I have dreams about that stuff it is SO good.
I don't even know what they do to it.. but it tastes like nothing.. just waterey water. And that's just what water should taste like.
Aussie bottled water FTW!
Reminds me of this:
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
@yevarechecha: To be brutally honest, some companies are just bottling municipal tap water. I'm sure I read somewhere that one of the Dasani bottling plants just draws off the Calgary, Alberta water supply.
Oh really, is anyone buying bottled water because they think their good-tasting, healthy tap water isn't?
@supercereal: when its chilled, the tap water unfiltered where i live tastes basically the same as the average bottled water. I guess it depends where you live though. Up in Wisconsin when i go to see relatives their water tastes like crap to me.
@balthisar: And how many cases have you heard of the EPA failing against the FDA failing. I can count on more than one hand how many times the FDA has botched up with E. Coli at peanut plants, Vioxx being pulled too late from the market ([arthritis.about.com]), FDA approved Byetta being heavily monitored now that they know it causes acute pancreatitis ([www.usrecallnews.com]), over 73,000 cases of food poisoning occurring every year among Americans ([www.washingtonpost.com]), and other instances. Yeah the FDA is doing quite a bang-up job protecting us.
@Fett101:
I really do prefer the taste of bottled, so I am willing to take my chances with it being "more harmful." :)
@Kimaroo: Ha, I feel the same way about the water in Aberdeenshire in Scotland... you know, the stuff they make whiskey out of :D Seriously, when I was there I could have sucked directly off the hotel tap. I LIVE in Houston, where the municipal toxic soup isn't really fit to even bathe in.
@Kogenta: The calgary municipal water supply is outstanding. It comes out of the bow river, straight down from the rocky mountain glaciers.
As opposed to, say, the new orleans municipal water supply, which comes out of the mississippi river- after it's been through most major cities in middle america.
When I lived near Philly, the tap water was awesome there. In Tucson, our tap water isn't even clear. No way in hell I'd drink that crap. I get water from Sparkletts, and it's delicious.
@Lucky225:
Thank you.
Apparently water is just water to some people. For those of us who do not want to make do with tap water, we choose bottled. Keep up the great work in Cabazon!
@yevarechecha: Do you like coke and pepsi? B/c their bottled water is just the water they use for the soda w/nothing in it.
@tbax929:
Have you done a double-blind taste test to confirm this? Apparently the taste difference may all be in your head! :)
@Fett101: I have performed a double blind taste test between my tap water, filtered tap water, and several brands of bottled water. The tap water tasted bad, the filtered water tasted worse, and now we drink only bottled (Poland Spring delivery, although Evian was actually at the top of the test)
@AppleAlex:
They use city water, do the reverse osmosis and UV, and possibly other things. After filtering it is stored in the top of the windmill. My wife likes it. I was filling about a month age and the lady was there cleaning, taking money out etc. Got to see inside, looked pretty clean. She said she was getting a whole house filter for her water and that it does about the same thing.
@wehsmith:
I actually never thought about the minigolf angle... Maybe I'll go putt some balls at the thing and give passers by something to talk about...
I love my tap water. I would drink it over almost any bottled water. It comes from the Mississippi River and gets filtered 11 times before coming to my faucet. I don't attach any filters to the faucet or anything weird like that. I love it.
@Lucky225: @Featherstonehaugh: Just because water is tap doesn't mean it's inherently worse off than bottled. The community I live in happens to have great tap water that we are actually kinda proud of 'round here.
You want drink tap water, drink tap water. But bottled water tastes better and is more convienent. No way around it. Besides, like it has been said numerous times already, tap water quality is going to vary from location.
My family of 5 goes through a case of water in about six days @ 3.99 (or less) a case. That's roughly $245 per year ... I can deal with that to pass on the over-chlorinated pool water that comes out of the tap around here.
@balthisar: FDA standards for water are NOT as strict as EPA standards and the FDA has so few inspectors to enforce their regulations that it would be almost laughable if it weren't so serious. The EPA takes it seriously.
You KNOW your tap water is safe to drink (unless there's an environmental catastrophe/terrorist activity) whereas you believe that your bottled water is safe.
Salmonella: Coming to a water bottle near you!