Pepsico has admitted to using tapwater in their Aquafina brand. Other brands are expected to come forward soon with more details on their methods of bottling, and the US government is expected to tighten controls on bottled water soon.
Fact of the matter is, if they sneak tap water into your bottled water...you shouldn't be upset. Our tap water is some of the safest in the world, and tests have shown no conclusive advantage in safety for bottle water, in fact, often tap water comes out as safer than bottled. Of the three countries in the world that use the most bottled water, the US, China and Mexico, we're number one, and we're also the only one of those three that has a completely safe tap water system of water.
Bottled water is ridiculous. Sure it has its uses, like on a camping trip or some such, but buying it, taking it home and drinking it there? It's absurb. You're throwing your money away and helping to hurt the environment for absolutely no good reason. I've railed against bottled water in the Green Energy thread for weeks, and you can see several articles in there about the dangers, excesses, and utter ridiculousness of bottled water.
posted
I'll be happy to pass this along. Once to my dad who refuses to drink tap water, and once to a friend who may already be a card-carrying member of this organisation.
Me, I'm happy to be drinking tap.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I've never really had a need for buying bottled water. I can easily bottle it myself from the tap, and I've never had any problems with it.
Lyrhawn, I was wondering if you happen to know the various ratings for tap water quality in each state. I've heard that Denver has the best, but I've never seen an actual source report that.
Posts: 2489 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I don't know the water quality ratings state by state off the top of my head, but I can go looking for that information when I get some time if you want. It's probably something you could find through the Department of Agriculture, the USGS, or the EPA.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Yes, bottled water may COME from tap water, but it is PURIFIED before it is distributed.
There are easy ways to do that with carbon filters! That are cheaper and more environmentally friendly if you care that much.
Also if they as good as lied about where their water came from... do you really trust them to tell the truth about purifying it for you?
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
I do trust them when they claim they've purified it, the reason being it is good for business. The bottled water business is such that they have to strictly ensure that their product is uniform; that is, each bottle must taste exactly the same. The only way to accomplish this is to strip the water of all minerals (basically, distilling it, though IIRC they use a reverse osmosis process) and then adding back in certain amounts of trace minerals until they reach the desired taste profile. The water undergoes the same strict quality control that the other soda products do, not because they care about the customer, but they do care greatly about their bottom line, which would be hurt if their products weren't absolutely uniform. Aquafina may start as tap water, but it ends up something different. The only misleading part is that their advertising would lead you to believe the water comes from some spring, which isn't at all feasible considering the amount of water sold.
Posts: 786 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
p.s. I personally think the idea of paying for water in a country with one of the best free water supplies in the world is completely ridiculous, but hey, that's capitalism.
Posts: 786 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Not all tap water is worth drinking in this country. For example, in Yuma, Arizona, the water has so much chlorine that it turns my stomach even to smell it. Most people there either buy or make reverse osmosis purified water.
Here in Ohio, I now have access to spring water, which tastes better than tap. I run it through a milk filter before drinking because otherwise it's a bit gritty, but otherwise it's good. If I lived in one of the areas around here that got its water from the Ohio River, I definitely wouldn't drink it. Ours comes from ground water, so I'll drink it if there's nothing else available.
I agree, though, that buying water in those small bottles is silly. If I buy water at all, I do it in at least 3 gallon containers at a time generally.
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Is it bad at all that the first thought that came to my head when I read the topic title was vodka?
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I like drinking bottled water at school when I need soemthing reusable and a cold drink during summer. But we get our water (for home use) from a fresh water well which we keepa closely guarded secret if you Americans come and try to take it.
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I never bought bottled water until I moved to San Diego at the age of 22. The tap water there tasted NASTY. My whole life I'd ridiculed bottled water drinking, but there I was, buying a gallon of bottled water pretty much every day (for like 50 cents at the little convenience mart across the street).
Here in Omaha, I simply fill up water bottles with tap, and then throw them in the fridge. I think the primary reason why most people (who don't live in cities with nasty tap water) prefer the taste of bottled water is because they are always drinking it ice cold. Well, most tap water tastes pretty good when chilled too.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Where I went to school, the water company would send out letters every once and awhile stating that young children or the elderly shouldn't drink the tap water. I'm in my prime but I still wouldn't drink the waters. I bought bottled water by the case while I was in the dorm and then bought some good filtered pitchers when I got a big enough fridge in my apartment.
Now I'm in New Orleans and with everything that's happened here, not to mention the freaking old pipes, I don't drink the tap water if I don't have to.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
In FL the sulfur level in tap water is high, at least in parts of the state.Even purified it tastes nasty.
In Ocala it is some of the best water in the nation, right out of a great aquifer, so it is one of many reasons I love living in Ocala. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Not all tap water is worth drinking in this country. For example, in Yuma, Arizona, the water has so much chlorine that it turns my stomach even to smell it. Most people there either buy or make reverse osmosis purified water.
Reverse osmosis doesn't do anything to remove chlorine. It's a probably a carbon pre-filter that's taking the chlorine out. If you just want to remove the chlorine, carbon alone is a much less expensive and less wasteful method. Reverse osmosis produces a lot of waste water which typically goes right into the sewer when people make it at home.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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posted
Has Aquafina not always said "municipal source" on it? Many bottled waters have for years, and I usually only buy ones that do, but only drink it at home when it seems we have a slight rotten egg smell (we are on a well and pump, this happens).
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Bottled water is ridiculous. Sure it has its uses, like on a camping trip or some such, but buying it, taking it home and drinking it there? It's absurb. You're throwing your money away and helping to hurt the environment for absolutely no good reason. I've railed against bottled water in the Green Energy thread for weeks, and you can see several articles in there about the dangers, excesses, and utter ridiculousness of bottled water.
This attitude is painfully ignorant. There are many people who suffer from a variety of conditions--IBS being the first that comes to mind--whose digestive systems are irritated by the pollutants and additives in tap water. Filtering the tap water helps, but does not resolve the issue.
Medical issues aside, bottled water has one great benefit: it tastes better. Better, frequently, than filtered tap water.
If you object to THAT, remember as you eat food grown through ridiculously harmful & convoluted agricultural & distribution practices for the sake of it tasting better that you're a bleeding heart hypocrite.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Dude, I thought we'd all known that much bottled water (unless it names its source) is tap water for AGES. But it's never bothered me; if I buy it, knowing what I'm getting, it's for my own reasons and it's my own choice.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I don't think it tastes better, personally. I don't taste any difference at all. So thank you for giving me the moral superiority I needed to go on railing against it. I appreciate it. And if it's a medical issue then fine, make it so bottled water needs a prescription for purchasing. I think that'd eliminate billions from the industry.
I'll admit that much of the agricultural and distribution apparatus in the US, let alone the world is wasteful, but I can't get pineapple in Michigan, it isn't grown here, I can however get water here, I don't have to have it tanked up and driven here from Fiji, have it bottled, and then driven to the store to go buy it.
Anything else you want to personally assault me with?
And yes, it is your choice to buy bottled water, I just think we should all understand the consequences of our actions.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
If you live in China, you BETTER drink bottled water and make sure its from a reputable vendor. If the seal is not intact they probably just refilled the bottle with tap water.
If you feel like growing some interesting new bacteria cultures or protist colonies, using your stomach as their living room, by all means drink from the tap.
I have a Brita filter at home and I swear by it. But if I am at say an amusement park, I am going to buy bottled water as I can't bring my own canteen, and even if I could I have no good way of keeping the water nice and cold all day.
Finding out bottled water is often purified tap water does not bother me in the slightest, but as always its good to know its not water from some snow capped mountain spring.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:I don't think it tastes better, personally. I don't taste any difference at all. So thank you for giving me the moral superiority I needed to go on railing against it. I appreciate it.
quote:I'll admit that much of the agricultural and distribution apparatus in the US, let alone the world is wasteful, but I can't get pineapple in Michigan, it isn't grown here
At this point, I don't need to keep posting: you're doing my work for me in making yourself look ridiculous.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Depending on your water source, there can be trace amounts of medicinal drugs. In some rivers (where tap water may come from), there are effects on fish and sex rations due to the birth control pills, so it is possible that they could affect people. If your tap water source has those drugs (and the article I saw- hardcopy newspaper- tested the water as it came out, not at the source), I can see preferring bottled water for children. I also keep bottled water for potential emergencies and so occassionally drink the old water and replace with new water.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I don't really notice a difference. The only benefit of bottled water is well- the bottles. I love being at stadiums or other places and people say "You have anything to drink?" and I point to the water fountain. Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
First of all, I used to travel all the time for work. Every second or third week I would be out of town, anywhere in the western hemisphere. As anyone who has done it knows, that's an extremely stressful life, and I found out that I got sick far less often if I didn't drink the local tap water. I drank sodas or bottled water and was fine. If I drank tap water I would get sick. It didn't take me long to be trained not to touch tap water.
Then the next thing that happened is that it started being true at home too. If I drank tap water I would get sick in a day or two. That's actually rather a problem for me because I'm Mormon and don't drink coffee or tea, and I try to avoid caffeine. Plus I'm diabetic so sweet sodas make me thirstier than I would be if I drank nothing at all. So about the only thing I can drink in many places (since caffeine free diet sodas are rare to find in restaurants) is bottled water.
I found that if I boil the water at home it's fine and doesn't make me sick. Also, for some unknown reason, freezing it in ice, then drinking the ice in a caffeine free soda or bottled water, also causes no problems. I'm not sure why that's so, but that's what I've observed.
I have a friend who is a Civil Engineer who specializes in waste water treatment plants. She told me that sometimes when it seems the whole city comes down with the intestinal flu (or what my mother called the upchucking virus) at once, that it actually is something in the water supply that slipped through. Having done work at such plants before, I can testify that they aren't 100% perfect. Also, people are mostly immune to their local bugs. Because of the time I spent traveling, I'm not immune. I could possibly become immune again if I were willing to suffer through a few weeks of vomiting and nausea. The problem is, every time I try, I get to the point when I'm really nauseated and I can't bring myself to keep drinking tap water. I just stop. Then I get well.
My understanding is that people in Europe rarely drink tap water. I think that perhaps they've learned that in places with long human habitation and high population, it's best not to drink anything that isn't alcoholic or hasn't been recently boiled. Hence the fondness for tea and wine.
Sometimes I drink "white tea", meaning boiled water that hasn't been steeped in anything. Just plain hot water out of the kettle. That works just fine.
I think people who rail against bottled water themselves have good results with tap water so they should continue to do what works for them. However, I don't think they know what they're saying when they want to dictate that for everyone. They haven't taken all the information that's out there into account, and haven't had the personal experiences of sickness from tap water, so they really aren't able to judge.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:My understanding is that people in Europe rarely drink tap water. I think that perhaps they've learned that in places with long human habitation and high population, it's best not to drink anything that isn't alcoholic or hasn't been recently boiled.
Part of it is also that American tap water is quite possibly the finest in the world, so people in other countries can be excused for not liking theirs as much. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:I don't think it tastes better, personally. I don't taste any difference at all. So thank you for giving me the moral superiority I needed to go on railing against it. I appreciate it.
quote:I'll admit that much of the agricultural and distribution apparatus in the US, let alone the world is wasteful, but I can't get pineapple in Michigan, it isn't grown here
At this point, I don't need to keep posting: you're doing my work for me in making yourself look ridiculous.
I'm sure I can make you look ridiculous too by cutting up your sentences to make them say whatever.
I don't get why you're so hostile over this issue. Are you taking personal offense, or are you just in a crappy mood?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Norwegian tapwater is of much higher quality than the American stuff; it tastes fresh and clean. In this country I don't drink water.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Question -- I was under the impression that in the US, while you have to divulge the ingredients of edible products, you don't have to divulge the origin of those ingredients. For instance, you don't have to say whether the citric acid comes from oranges or corn, whether the sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beets, or whether the water comes from the tap or a pristine mountain stream.
The article hinted some about it, but I don't really understand what has changed making it so that Aquafina needed to say where their water is coming from.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by King of Men: Norwegian tapwater is of much higher quality than the American stuff; it tastes fresh and clean. In this country I don't drink water.
I didn't notice that Norwegian water tasted particularly fresh, but where I live (Provo, UT) the tap water is very clean, even by US standards.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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posted
s: On the other hand, tap water is fluoridated which may be amenable to children that are growing teeth.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Question -- I was under the impression that in the US, while you have to divulge the ingredients of edible products, you don't have to divulge the origin of those ingredients. For instance, you don't have to say whether the citric acid comes from oranges or corn, whether the sugar comes from sugar cane or sugar beets, or whether the water comes from the tap or a pristine mountain stream.
The article hinted some about it, but I don't really understand what has changed making it so that Aquafina needed to say where their water is coming from.
I think that is the case, but it's being talked about in government right now because of China. What with all the health and safety issues China has had lately, there's a big rumbling to make it so you have to label where EVERYTHING in an item comes from, so in case you're buying food made in America but with bits and pieces of imported food from 15 different countries, they all have to be listed, because so much of what we consume is Chinese, and because of bad PR, a lot of people are freaking out.
But I think the argument for bottled water is closer to false advertising.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:My understanding is that people in Europe rarely drink tap water. I think that perhaps they've learned that in places with long human habitation and high population, it's best not to drink anything that isn't alcoholic or hasn't been recently boiled.
That certainly isn't true in the UK. Tap water is much more commonly drunk than bottled water.
I drink 99% tap water. I only buy bottled water when I’m away from home and need a drink. I then re use the water bottles with tap water, so it might look to a casual observer that I’m drinking bottled water, but it is tap water.
Posts: 169 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:My understanding is that people in Europe rarely drink tap water. I think that perhaps they've learned that in places with long human habitation and high population, it's best not to drink anything that isn't alcoholic or hasn't been recently boiled.
Part of it is also that American tap water is quite possibly the finest in the world, so people in other countries can be excused for not liking theirs as much.
Since I have worked with water quality research center, I can authoritatively tell you that both assertions are wrong. The quality of tap water in Western Europe exceeds the quality of tap water pretty much everywhere in the US. Tap water in western Europe is ozonated rather than chlorinated. Since ozone doesn't leave a residual in the water the way chlorine does, they also have to eliminate all the organic material in the water to prevent baterial growth between the treatment plant and your house. The resulting water tastes better and is quantifiably far purer than American tap water.
Still, many Europeans like to drink bottled water even though they know that tap water is cleaner. Some of it is out of habit arising from a past where water wasn't safe to drink. A great deal of it is because many people prefer carbonated water (unlike Americans). Most of the Germans I know drink tap water at home but bottled water when they are at work. They also complain bitterly about how bad the water tastes when they come to the US. They even complain about the chlorine taste in the Coke you get with ice in it.
While I agree that drinking bottled water in the US is wasteful and completely unnecessary, Americans need to obsolve themselves of the dilusion that the US has the finest water quality in the world. We don't. Check the facts.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
As an aside, I've never much liked the taste of US water, especialyl in Provo, UT, too many minerals. Yet the drinking fountain water in Hong Kong to me is absolutely delicious.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: As an aside, I've never much liked the taste of US water, especialyl in Provo, UT, too many minerals. Yet the drinking fountain water in Hong Kong to me is absolutely delicious.
If you can taste the minerals in the Provo UT water over the chlorine, you've got extraordinary taste buds.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
Lyrhan. Come to San Jose and drink some of our nasty tap water. Come and Taste the Superfund.
Then I'll show you the ice machine in our freezer. I have to clean it out every couple of months because of the white waxy build up that is left behind after the ice sublimates a way a bit. Heck, we can put some of that ice in your drink so you can watch it float around.
Now, if I was back home in The Natural State, I'd be drinking the tap water. It tastes like tap water should. Fresh, with a hint of algae. It's almost sweet. Of course, I believe you've called my home state an environmental disaster because of Tyson Foods, so maybe you wouldn't want to drink that tap water either. (Which is too bad because it really does taste wonderful.)
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: As an aside, I've never much liked the taste of US water, especialyl in Provo, UT, too many minerals. Yet the drinking fountain water in Hong Kong to me is absolutely delicious.
If you can taste the minerals in the Provo UT water over the chlorine, you've got extraordinary taste buds.
Well, I don't like to brag or anything. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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When did I call Arkansas an environmental disaster?
I'd be okay with a tax on a state by state basis on bottled water if the money were used entirely to upgrade the quality of the drinking water from the tap. Given the number of bottles of water sold in the country, it wouldn't have to be a very big tax at all. There should at least be a bottle return thing so more people would recycle them.
mph -
It's more than just San Fran, several West coast cities have banned the purchase of bottled water with public funds.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Lyr: I might be confusing you with someone else. But one of the people from Big Environment called NW Arkansas an environmental disaster due to chicken litter (organic fertilizer). I guess birds don't poop in their state.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Tatiana: Also, for some unknown reason, freezing it in ice, then drinking the ice in a caffeine free soda or bottled water, also causes no problems.
As water freezes, some of the impurities are excluded from the crystal. It's one of the methods of desalinizing water.
quote:Originally posted by Mucus: s: On the other hand, tap water is fluoridated which may be amenable to children that are growing teeth.
Bottled water can be easily found in fluoridated varieties.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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