I was just telling people on yahoo answers about the many negative side effects of bottled water and the bottled water industry.

Bottled water is slavery and elitist consumerism at it's worst.

By the way, the link you posted gets a page not found error.

I like to point out #2 to people who are addicted to bottled water. There is much more regulation concerning tap water than what getts bottled. Seems funny to me since people think bottled is so much better. Most places in America have fairly clean water. If you are worried about too much chlorine, you can leave your water sitting in the sun and the chlorine evaporates off it.

i buy water now for my small child. i was advised to not give him city water for the first few years, because of the fluoride added to it. apparently (i haven't researched this) the fluoride could damage his freshly budding teeth.

It amazes me how first world countries can spend $37b on bottled water, but cannot donate a few million to provide clean water for people in third world countries who does not have access to it.

I was re-reading all the posts here and a thought popped into my head. I worked at a music festival that put out fresh H2O bottles for all the preformers. I made a point of dumping the water out before tossing the bottles, but others did not. It got me thinking about all the water locked up in plastic sitting in the landfill. Could our (and other) nation's addiction to bottled water lead to a world-wide drought? Any thoughts?

Hey dudes,

I and my fiancee use polycarbonate 1.0 L bottles from Enviro Products...www.enviroproductsinc.com. I finally broke the flippy top cover thingy and they are mailing me a new one. I refill from the tap...filtered through a PUR filter, though, because there are just too many possible thingies coming through the tap, such as chloride, fluoride, and lead. Granted, less pathogens than bottled water, but the PUR filter takes care of that too.

I agree that bottled water is a major contributor in waste and all the rest of your issues ring true as well flaneuese.

It has always been quite the scam. What next... canned air ?

this is all rather disturbing and inspiring. i've been drinking bottled water for a while, despite the fact that it's a huge drain (ha) on my finances. i was getting Mountain Valley Spring in dark green bottles after I'd read something David Wolfe had written about dark glass bottles. Then I switched to Appalachian Spring b/c MVS was so expensive and I'd read that there was a difference between the different kinds of packaged plastic in terms of our health.

I was thinking the other day about the push toward buying local instead of organic. I came to the conclusion that of course local is a good idea in terms of minimizing fossil fuels used in shipping. However. When I go to the farmer's market and the farmer from upstate NY tells me that her root veggies are not pesticided/sprayed, I will buy them. But when she tells me that her apples are sprayed because you can't grow apples without pesticides very easily -- I'm not going to eat a bunch of killer chemicals to make the world a better place. Just won't do it. I will, however, buy organic apples grown in the US over the ones grown in New Zealand. And it's fine with me if I don't have exotic organic fruits in the middle of the winter.

I feel similarly about water. My building has very old pipes and a number of people who work in the building over the years have warned me not to drink the water here. I don't know exactly what the issue is but I've been buying water because I thought it *might* be better. Anyway, I'm not willing to poison myelf to save the environment. Actually, maybe I'd be willing to poison myself to save the environment, but I'm definitely not willing to poison myself as the environment goes to heck in a handbasket anyway.

It seems true that it would be inequitable for the poor to be relegated to drinking deadly toxic water and the rich to be able to drink the clean stuff. And it seems ridiculous to fill up landfills with garbage plastic packaging if tap water is not indeed better.

What would be helpful to me in breaking my bottled water habit would be some advice about two things:

1. What's the best way to test the water in my building? I'd appreciate brand names/links to really reliable testing products or whoever it is you're supposed to call if you're wondering about your water.

2. An overview of the various kinds of filters a person can get. I saw something somewhere that was like this big spirally object that filtered the water down slowly. I've seen the ones that attach to sinks. I've seen the pump kind you can take with you when you travel. I've tried (and hated) Brita filters with all those annoying little bits of charcol that wind up floating around. Has anyone here spent a chunk of time comparing different systems and got solid advice on what works?

Well, I have to say:

I live in The Netherlands and our tapwater is incredibly good. I've been in America (Oregon) for a month and your water totally tastes like chlorine. Now I don't know if that's bad, but it sure doesn't taste very healthy.

I don't think I am alone when I list my reasons for purchasing bottled water IF I do so...

1) Nearly ALL U.S. municipalities FLUORINATE their water
- the form of Fluoride purchased for deposit in the water supply is NOT the naturally occurring mineral Calcium Fluoride . It is Hydrofluorosilicic Acid, Sodium Silicofluoride, or Sodium Fluoride - TOXIC WASTE products of Aluminium smelting and the phosphate fertilizer industry.They are industrial grade, not pharmaceutical grade products and can contain small residues of toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury or lead.
- fluoride increases the absorption and uptake of aluminum and lead.
- fluoride accumulates in the pineal gland and inhibits its production of melatonin and other vital regulatory hormones. Look up "Effect of fluoride exposure on intelligence in children." Li, X.S., Zhi, J.L., and Gao, R.O. Fluoride 28 (1995), "Effect of fluoride on the physiology of the pineal gland." Luke, J.A. Caries Research 28 204 (1994) and Newburgh-Kingston caries-fluorine study XIII - Pediatric findings after ten years. Schlesinger, E.R., Overton, D.E., Chase, H.C., and Cantwell, K.T. JADA 52 296-306 (1956)
- "Why EPA Headquarters' Union of Scientists Opposes Fluoridation." - www.nteu280.org/Issues/Flu...luoride.htm

2) Gone are the days when to get rid of the Chlorine in tap water all you had to do is let it sit out. Nowadays Chlorine is used in ADDITION to or replaced all together by CHLORAMINE, an even more toxic and chorosive chemical which DOES NOT EVAPORATE and is used for that very reason. Because it does not evaporate and is so much stronger it takes less and therefore more cost effective.

3) Municipal water supplies DO NOT filter PCB's, VOC's or MTBE(the gasoline additive found to have leached into water tables across the country due to leaking underground holding tanks at gas stations) or the growing levels of pharmaceuticals now found in our public water supplies due to the high levels ingested by the population and the low levels actually absorbed by the human body - leaving the rest to go, well, down the drain.

Most bottled water can contain up to 50% tap water without being disclosed on the label and contains much of the same contaminants/toxins listed above, however many brands use combinations of Carbon Block, U.V., Reverse Osmosis, Distillation, and DeIonization which do eliminate or greatly reduce almost all contaminants including the chemicals mentioned above.

I applaud any effort to reduce waste. However, I do not feel this plan is SOLVING the problem. The logical answer would be to stop letting our tax dollars go to purchase industrial waste to be disposed of via our water supply. There is no logical reason other than PROFIT AND GREED. Kick-back's are furnished by the corporate lobbyists to members of our congress to dupe tax payers into PAYING for toxic waste, providing the corporations profit from disposal of the waste - disposal they would otherwise have to PAY for.

Due to the toxicity of the plastic used to make water bottles and the rate at which they leach carcinogens and voc's increasing drastically when re-used, frozen, microwaved, heated, exposed to sunlight or detergents(soap) I would not IN ANY CASE recommend or condone the use of reusable plastic water bottles or re-using water bottles. Their use and re-use has been linked directly to breast cancer in women and birth defects in children among many other things. If you can re-use a glass bottle such as a Voss, Pana or Pellegrino etc. bottle, re-filling it preferably from a reverse osmosis machine, deionizer, or distillation unit. If you prefer to fill a 3 or 5 gallon jug to have at home get a glass one. If you must go with polycarbonate purchase it brand new, keep it from exposure to sunlight and never use a brush or detergents on the inside. If you must clean it with a solution of water and peroxide.

Do your research, start asking questions and find out what you can do in your community to ban fluoridation.