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This page will be updated periodically with a tidbit of information that will help you be healthier! Check out the "Research Archive" on the left to see past articles/research.
Latest update: 2/24/2008 Water Bottles Kill! Well, not directly, but if the title caught your attention, then you’re like me. This title was on a poster I saw at City College of San Francisco’s Science building. Maybe I’ve watched too many B movies, but I had visions of giant water bottles rolling down the street, squishing everything in its path. Then, I thought about how I’ve heard this debate about bottled water versus tap water several times in just the past week. As a personal trainer, I tell my clients how important it is to drink plenty of water whether we’re working out or not. I decided to do some research to find out for myself and for my clients, which is better, bottled water or tap. Americans spend over 11 billion dollars a year on bottled water. (1) Advertising companies for bottled water will have you believe that tap water is full of contaminants and is bad for your health. It has become chic, trendy, and fashionable to carry around a bottle of water with you everywhere. Do you carry a bottle of water with you when you leave the house? Over half the population of the U.S. drinks bottled water regularly. Have you been sold that bottled water is better for you and your tap is crap? Here’s what my research as told me: Don’t buy bottled water! Why? First, because there are tremendous environmental costs to buying bottled water. Second, there are physical costs to your health. Third, the economical costs are astronomical. Finally, there are better alternatives to buying bottled water. The Environmental Impact First, let’s talk about the tremendous environmental costs from cradle to grave. The most commonly used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil. These bottles of water require more than 10 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 650,000 U.S. cars for a year. This non-renewable resource is used to deliver the plastic bottles all over the world. We’re using more fossil fuels to boat, train or truck the packaged bottles from exotic places such as Fiji or the French Alps to the U.S. as well as domestically bottled water. (2) This is adding to global warming, the depletion of a non-renewable resource, and keeps us dependent on foreign oil. After its use, what happens to the plastic bottles? According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Almost 40 percent of the PET bottles that were deposited for recycling in the United States in 2004 were actually exported, sometimes to as far away as China—adding to the resources used by this product. (2) So, if you must drink from plastic bottles, please recycle it by disposing it in a recycling bin. In addition to the
strains bottled water puts on our ecosystem through its production and transport, the
rapid growth in this industry means that water extraction is concentrated in communities
where bottling plants are located. For example, water shortages near beverage bottling
plants have been reported in Texas and in the Great Lakes region of North America.
Farmers, fishers, and others who depend on water for their livelihoods suffer from the
concentrated water extraction when water tables drop quickly. (2) So you can see that from
cradle to grave, bottled water has tremendous costs to our environment. Next, let’s look at it from the physical costs to our health. Before we look at what goes into the plastic bottles, let’s take a look at the different kinds of bottles themselves. Studies have shown that antimony, a toxic chemical, will leach from plastic bottles made of PET when left in high temperatures or after sitting in the bottle for over six months. (4&5) Phthalates, a toxic carcinogen used to form the bottles’ shape, has also been found in polyethylene terapthalate (PET) bottles. (12) These same researchers found lead in glass-bottled waters. (6). Hard plastic lexan bottles (Nalgene brand) made with polycarbonate plastics and identified by the #7 recycling symbol may leach Bisphenol-A (BPA), a hormone disruptor. There is controversy about whether BPA is harmful to humans, but I wouldn’t want to take any chances. (7&8) Studies show that 35% of those surveyed are concerned about tap water safety. Another 12% are concerned about tap water safety and drink bottled water as a substitute for other beverages. Therefore, they buy bottled water. (3) So, let’s look at what goes into the bottles. Guess what goes into Aquafina and Desani? Tap water! (9&10) If 40% of bottled water is just tap water, how is it safer? In March 1999, the Natural Resource Defense Council published their findings from a four year study that compared bottled water with Big City tap water. The report found major gaps in bottled water regulation and conclude that bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water. They found that the FDA rules for bottled water is generally less strict than tap water rules, governed by the EPA. Most (60 to 70 percent) bottled water sold intrastate in the U.S., in fact, isn’t regulated at all. They found that Big City tap water can have no confirmed E-coli while the FDA allows a certain amount of E-coli in bottled water. Bottled water plants must test for coliform bacteria just once a week. Big city tap water must be tested at least 100 times a month. (12) What is E-coli? It’s crap! Yes, the FDA will allow crap in your bottled water! The bottled water
industry has persuaded the FDA to exempt bottled water from regulations regarding toxic,
carcinogenic chemicals such as phthalates. Cryptosporidium and Giardia, two common water
pathogens that can cause diarrhea and other intestinal problems, were found in bottled
water. (12) I’m convinced that bottled water isn’t safer than tap water. How much do you spend on bottled water? In 2007, the average 20 ounce bottle of Aquafina or Desani is $1.25 in vending machines in San Francisco and about $1.59 in the stores. That equates to $8 to $10 per gallon of water. In 2007, the price of a gallon of gas is about $3 to $4 per gallon. You’re paying twice as much for water than for gas! If you buy and drink 2 bottles of water per day, you’re spending $75 to $95 per month for bottled water. What do you pay for tap? My water bill for September and October 2007 came to $0.09 per 10 gallons. For the price of one gallon of bottled water, I can get over 1000 gallons from my tap! So, comparing the cost
of bottled water to gasoline and to tap, your tap is the most economical choice. (Please
don’t attempt to drink the gasoline.) The obvious alternative
is to drink from the tap. It’s just as safe, if not safer than bottled water. Not
convinced that it’s safer? The SF Chronicle wrote, “San Franciscans and other
Bay Area residents enjoy some of the nation's highest quality drinking water, with
pristine Sierra snowmelt from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir as our primary source. Every
year, our water is tested more than 100,000 times to ensure that it meets or exceeds every
standard for safe drinking water. And yet we still buy bottled water. Why? Maybe it's
because we think bottled water is cleaner and somehow better, but that's not true. The
federal standards for tap water are higher than those for bottled water.” (13) Even San Francisco, Seattle and
other city legislators have put their money where their mouths are. They have banned
purchasing bottled water using our tax dollars. Purchasing water is no longer allowed for
any city government function, meeting, event, or for day-to-day use in any city government
buildings. Don’t forget, 40% of bottle waters use tap as their source. Corporate Accountability International, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, stated that thousands of people across the US have been urging Pepsi to make changes in the Aquafina label, which includes an image of snow-capped mountains and states “pure water, perfect taste”. Though the image implies that the source of Aquafina is mountain spring water, it actually uses tap water as its source. (9) If you feel you must buy bottled water, there’s hope for us. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law on October 13, 2007, a bill that requires water bottlers to provide essential water quality information to consumers and list the source of their water on the product label. It was Senate Bill 220 and goes into effect on January 1 of 2009. At least we’ll know the water’s source. Don’t like the taste of your tap? Then purchase a water filter for your tap at home. There are many brands available and the vast majority cost less than bottled water. Check out brands like Brita or Pur. There are the kinds that you can put under your sink with a separate spout. There are the pitchers with the filters in the lids. There are even some that will work with your refrigerator’s ice maker and water delivery system. Using the pitcher type of filter, you end up spending about $0.15 per gallon, compared to $8 to $10 per gallon you’ve been paying for bottled water. That’s a huge savings! But you’re not at home to drink from your filtered tap. The #7 Nalgene bottles might leach Bisphenol-A into your water. The fountain, if you can find it, is gross. There isn’t a filter on the kitchen sink at work (if you even have a kitchen.) What do you do? Nalgene makes bottles in safer #2, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and #4, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), plastic. (www.nalgene-outdoor.com). However, those are still environmentally unfriendly plastics. Get yourself a metal water bottle or canteen. They come in many sizes and colors and you can find them in any sporting goods store. Wash them out with soapy water every night. Fill them up every morning before you leave the house and you’re set with a convenient and chic way of carrying around your filtered tap water. Not only will you be
chic and trendy, you’ll be helping the environment, drinking safe and healthy water,
and saving a ton of money. Don’t be taken in by the big corporations who can afford
to spend billions of dollars to make us think that bottled water is chic, trendy and
better for us. Your tap isn’t crap. Yes, we must drink water, but it doesn’t
have to come from a plastic or glass bottle. Don’t buy bottled water!
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