Is our bottled water any better than our drinking water? (And our drinking water is pretty polluted).

If you’re worried about the lack of quality of your drinking water, and you should be, you may be asking yourself “should I be drinking bottled water”? After all, those huge shelves full of lots of different brands of bottled water must suggest that just about everyone is drinking bottled water.

Many are, but that doesn’t mean that bottled water is any better than tap water.

In March 1999 the NRDC (the National Resources Defence Council) released a report into a 4 year study of bottled water.  It was called “Bottled Water. Pure Drink or Pure Hype”? And they were scathing about the  bottled water industry.

The bottom line of the report, which you can read in the link above, is that there is no reason why bottled water is any purer or cleaner than tap water. It just sold so well because it was advertised so heavily as being cleaner and purer and safer than tap water.

Over 1000 bottles of 103 different brands of bottled water were tested. Over a third of those tested were contaminated including synthetic chemicals, arsenic and bacteria, and one exceeded allowable state contamination limits.

The reason is that the FDA doesn’t have stict regulations about the quality of bottled water, so basically anything can be in there and the FDA won’t do very much.

Bottled water is a huge industry, and turns over $billions. There are some very big companies involved in the bottled water industry, including Coca Cola, a company not known for it’s concern towards the health of it’s customers.

So if you’re worried about the safety of your tap water, be concerned. But don’t drink bottled water. Find the best drinking water filter you can buy, and use it.

Because nothing much has changed. Read the rest of this entry

Does it concern you that there is lead in your drinking water?

Would it surprise you to know that there is probably lead in your drinking water. Well that’s if you’re like the estimated 98% of the US population. Because the EPA has estimated that around 98% of US households would have lead in their drinking water.

Does that scare you? Lead in your water? It should, because the EPA also says that there is no safe level of lead in water, that lead in any quantity, no matter how small, can be dangerous, especially for children. For kids it can lead to behavioral problems, reduced IQ and learning difficulties, and that’s just the start. Washington has announced that it’s aging system of water delivery is resulting in lead in the drinking water, at levels up to 25 times higher than the legal level.

And remember that the EPA says that there is NO safe level of lead in drinking water.

Where does that lead come from? From your pipes. Most lead gets into your drinking water in your house as the water passes through your pipes. Some pipes are lead lined, and most have solder in them that has lead in it. Solder is used to join pipes.

So what do you do about lead in your household drinking water? You use the best drinking water filter that it’s possible to buy.

Bottled water is a con. Read the rest of this entry