Bottled water

Bottled water is essentially a dirtier, ridiculously expensiveLike, a 4000% markup ridiculously expensive by Aaron Crowe (2012) ABC News. version of municipal water resold in plastic containers. On Monday, 1 March, 2004. BBC
Somehow, Nestlé, and many other companies have convinced half of all Americans to buy water for 1 to 6 USD a gallon in bottle form, from Natural Resources Defense Council instead of tap water, for a fraction of a USD penny per gallon, from City of Chesapeake by Michael Shermer, published July 2003 all because of the influence of marketing and the publicized tap water contamination scares. Check your gas prices while you're at it, society.
==Contents==
For the most tasteless and odorless substance on the planet, companies market bottled water products as having intrinsic high quality with a silky smooth texture and taste, despite a lack of any substantiative differences between it and normal water. from The Washington Post In Michael Shermer's article Bottled Twaddle, he reminds us just how taste-deaf our tongues actually are when it comes to nasty, boring water:
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!s experiment illustrates the power of the only aspect affecting the taste of the water is the assumed quality through deceptive presentation.
===Bacteria===
It pays to be warned of what you may consume, though. In 2016, at least 14 different brands of bottled water recalled their products due to E. coli contamination, the presence of which suggests the additional presence of animal or human waste. from The Huffington Post
===Hazardous waste===
In one extreme case, "water, flaunted as 'spring water,' was pumped from a water source next to a hazardous waste dumping site."https://www.banthebottle.net/articles/7-bottled-water-myths-busted/www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-bottled-unsafe-drinking.htmhttp://www.rd.com/health/diet-weight-loss/rethink-what-you-drink/
==Plastic leaching and cancer==
According to the grape vine, frozen bottled water releases carcinogenic dioxins, reusing water bottles releases carcinogenic DEHA, and heating bottled water releases a synthetic estrogen that causes breasts cancer and hormone issues. None of these claims are actually true, except for the last one, kind of. 
The health scare about heated water bottles was partly fueled from journalists taking a 2014 study by the University of Florida out of context. (The study was originally located here). Study conducted by Ying-Ying Fan, Jian-Lun Zheng, Jing-Hua Ren, Jun Luo, Xin-Yi Cui, and Lena Q. Mahttp://www.bottledwatermatters.org/article/chinese-bottled-water-study-misrepresents-facts The study shows two issues: Chinese Bottled Water Study Misrepresents Factshttp://www.9news.com/news/local/verify/verify-is-it-dangerous-to-drink-bottled-water-thats-been-sitting-in-a-hot-car/455231692http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/local/2-wants-to-know/verify-is-it-dangerous-to-drink-bottled-water-thats-been-sitting-in-a-hot-car/455022712
#The study was actually conducted in China by Chinese students who sampled Chinese water bottles.
#The finding of the study reported water within the correct ranges of water standards.
Nanoplastics do leach from the plastic bottles into the water, and the levels of nano-plastics in bottled water is much higher than in tap water. The health effects of nanoplastics, if any, are as yet unknown.Here’s what you’re really swallowing when you drink bottled water: A new study finds that ‘nanoplastics’ are even more common than microplastics in bottled water by Shannon Osaka (Updated January 9, 2024 at 12:47 p.m. EST; Published January 8, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
==Marketing==
Depictions of exotic mountains, crisp glaciers, and other beautiful imagery often depicted on bottles invoke a sense of purity and freshness. This eases a consumer's mind and convinces them they're making a better and healthier dietary decision. from Quickbooks
Here's a list of refreshing terminology for overpriced, unfiltered tap water:
*"Designed to make a difference" from Textart
*"The secret is in the Alps" from Textart
*"Purified spring mineral water"[Every bottled water ever]
*"A water that belongs on the wine list" from Textart
===Alternative to soda===
While being vastly inferior to tap water in every way, bottled water was initially positioned as an alternative to unhealthy sodas. In a Hispanic-targeted sweepstakes, challenged families to replace sugary drinks with water for a possible cash prize: from Adweek
===Convenience===
Bottled water is marketed as a convenient alternative to tap water. Obviously, it's much easier to spend money like a dope instead of planning ahead and filling up a container at home to carry with you, or stopping at a refill station once you run out. Unfortunately, the bottled water craze has resulted in fewer public drinking fountains, therefore, giving positive feedback to the cash cow industry. from SF GateFortunately, there are various refill schemes around the world aiming to combat this: http://refillambassadors.com/refill-apps/
==Regulation==
===United States===
In the U.S., bottled water is regulated by the while tap water is regulated by the from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services It doesn't sound like much, but once you consider how the regulation process goes, the EPA goes much further to ensure the water is safe for drinking.
The FDA has two means of testing bottled water, testing it themselvesRegulation of Bottled Water by the U.S. FDA and to have companies do it for them. from U.S. Food and Drug Administration For the latter, it goes by an honor system; therefore, companies can lie about the regulations they're not abiding by. According to studies, bottled water often fails to meet EPA standards of mercury, thallium, and thorium amounts. from U.S. National Center for Biotechnology InformationIkem, A., Odueyungbo, S., Egiebor, N.O., & Nyavor, K. (2001). "Chemical quality of bottled waters from three cities in eastern Alabama". Science of the Total Environment 285 (1-3): 165–175. doi: As for the FDA's plant inspections, fairly loose regulations are also present. Here's some quotes, straight from the administration's website:
The current system in place is not preventative and is, instead, reactive to a violation of unsafe water released to the public... after the fact. Amusingly, a handful of unsafe bottled water cases between the years 1994 and 2006 were not made public for whatever reason. Information Supplement to Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water (published by Island Press, April 2010) Here's one more awful questionable FDA practice:
Keep in mind, the quotes from above are straight from the official dot gov website. The rather lax regulations are likely a reflection of a lack of funding or authority over the issue. Either way, Congress is to blame, not the FDA per se.
Meanwhile, tap water goes through rigorous testing, thanks to the Safe Drinking Water Act. from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from The New York Times The results show tap water has consistently less contaminants than bottled water. Despite highly publicized contaminated tap water incidents, no scientific evidence shows tap water has more toxins than bottled water; in fact, it's the other way around. Despite this, the FDA claims to have higher standards for lead in bottled water by a difference of 10 ppb because "leaching of lead from distribution systems is not a factor for bottled water and, based on its survey data, FDA concluded that bottlers can readily produce bottled water products with lead levels below 5 ppb." In contradiction, a lot of bottled water available in the United States is tap water, so "leaching of lead from distribution systems" should be a factor. However, tap water isn't free of contaminates either. According to a study, 94% of sampled tap water was contaminated with plastic fibers, although the health impacts remain unclear.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals
===Europe===
The UK treats bottled water as food:https://www.gov.uk/food-standards-labelling-durability-and-composition#bottled-water
Coca-Cola tried to sell bottled mains (tap) water under their 'Dasani' brand in the UK. They recalled and stopped production after was found in the product. "Many papers, unhelpfully for Coca-Cola, also reminded readers that while Dasani sells for 95p per 500ml, Thames Water, which supplies homes in the area where the product is sourced and bottled, sells the water at the equivalent of 0.03p per 500ml."https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/mar/19/foodanddrink
German law also provides for a different set of regulations for tap water than for bottled water. Needless to say, the regulations for tap water are much much stricter, but r. and in fact, they may even go to your house to measure at the tap whether any pollutants are above the legal limits.https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinkwasserverordnung As for another advantage of tap water, in Germany, you won't be slapped by the intentionally onerous 25 cent deposit on throwaway bottles; this is even more expensive than the cheapest one and a half liter of water itself.
===Russia===
Some areas in Russia have safe-to-drink tap water; others, not so much, though that doesn't stop tour guides from advising tourists to avoid it altogether or some restaurants serving only bottled water.Sorokina, Anna (Oct 23 2017) Is it safe to drink tap water in Russia? Russia Beyond. Retrieved August 5, 2019.(April 25, 2016) Moscow Lifehack: Can I drink the water in Moscow? Are you sure? The Moscow Times. Retrieved August 5, 2019. Although the big cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg have cleaner water than areas in Central Russia, Siberia, Yamal, and Altai, the pipe infrastructure is pre-Soviet era where some cities have very poor pipe quality, with Kalmykia having 72 percent and Novogorod having 55 percent of pipes not up to modern standards. What doesn't help is that St. Petersburg has contained trace amounts of the parasite.
Roskachestvo serves as the watch dog regulatory agency for Russia's products, funded by the government to promote Russian stuff (something to keep in mind when looking at its research). Products that pass its testing earns a quality seal from it. Russian law categorizes bottled water in two categories: first category water, which is just "cleaner" tap water, and water of the highest category, which not only comes from "natural" sources but has to be "good for your health" to drink it.Bottled Water in Russia. Russia Lounge. Retrieved August 5, 2019. Notably Roskachestvo has noted that some bottled water categorized as water of the highest category often did not meet quality standards.
==Environmental impact and waste==
In some strange twist, it takes water to produce water bottles. In the best case scenario, it takes 1.26 Liters of water to produce plastic for 1 Liter of water; on average this number is 1.32 Liters. While the amount of water to make bottled water is better than other products such as soda,Thomas Andrew Gustafson. How Much Water Actually Goes Into Making A Bottle Of Water?, NPR, 30 October 2013. it still doesn't negate that companies are wasting water when tap water is a reasonable and more efficient means of getting water. 
The plastic poses another issue: recycling. Sure, water bottles clearly indicate that it's recyclable, but most people don't recycle.Even if they did, recycling is only fourth place on the waste hierarchy, but by all means let's get them recycling first. According to IBIS World:https://www.buzzfeed.com/venessawong/plastic-drinking-problemhttps://www.ibisworld.com/procurement-research-reports/
Plastic bottles can take 450 years to decompose if left in the environment. from New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services You don't want to make the Earth sad, do you?
==Bottled water in emergency response==
=== Natural disasters===
FEMA recommends using bottled water for emergency kits, although its reasoning behind its usage is questionable:https://www.ready.gov/water
While bottled water is not the safest, it is very reliable for emergency situations and doesn't need further treatment, unlike tap water. Although, it is best to create your own emergency supply from tap water for safety reasons.If you need source for this, you clearly haven't been paying attention.
=== Contamination ===
In Ohio, Toledo's water supply was affected by Lake Erie's algae blooms hence contaminating the water supply. In response, the city banned tapped water, prompting the Red Cross to supply the half a million of affected citizens with bottled water. The take away: bottled water is a reasonable alternative when it is relatively cleaner than the available tap water.
== See also ==
*Holy water it's occasionally bottled, often unsanitary, and completely unregulated
==External links==
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== Notes ==
== References ==
Category:Water woo
Category:Scams
Category:Drink