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About six months ago a simple exhibit in the lobby of the building where we work had a striking display. On the table were six small bottles of water – all with familiar labels including one from a well known French brand and one bottled in the California Sierras. Inside each bottle was water and oil. The one from the California company was about one tenth oil and nine parts water, the one from the French company – about one quarter oil and three quarters water. The message: when you buy bottled water this is REALLY what you are paying for - the gas/oil it takes to make the bottle and transport it around. Wonder why bottled water can be so expensive? This is one of those reasons.
Wow, what a stunner. For a long time most of us at Living the Science had been bringing our own water because of the known risks associated with the plastic -- the oil was yet another reason that really hit home the importance of bringing water with us whereverwe went (plus extra for kids etc...). We are lucky because our water tastes great (not always an easy thing to find in California) and as such, we are able to simply fill stainless steel water bottles with it and go (these kinds of bottles are incredibly durable – not to mention they are rather stylish and come in fun kids sized and colors). Controversial as it may seem to say this (given how successful companies selling you water have been at convincing the public it is not true), the water in most United States cities is in fact SAFE. That doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions and it doesn’t mean that other chemicals we would rather not have in our water like small amounts of heavy metals and fluoride aren’t there. The point is, bottled water often has these chemicals too and once that water gets packaged in small plastic containers it is at increased risk for actually leaching some of the chemicals from the plastic into the water (like Bisphenal-A (BPA) -- a chemical recently found to be associated with an increased risk for diabetes and heart disease in humans and obesity and reproductive abnormalities in animals). The risk of these chemicals leaching into the water increases when bottles are heated – remember this the next time you buy the super size of small water bottles and leave them in your car during the summertime.
If you really can’t stand the taste of your tap water or you know or suspect it has high levels of metals or other chemicals, consider getting a water filter for your home. Yes, they themselves tend to be made of plastic (sigh) but they do a pretty good job of making the water taste better and ridding it of most unwanted chemicals. You can even get water bottles with filters attached – really! Need another reason to bring water from your tap with you? According the Container Recycling Institute, despite being recyclable, nearly 1 trillion (that’s 1, 000,000.000,000) single serving water bottles have ended up in landfills THIS YEAR ALONE – that’s nearly 1000 per second.
This Article was Part 2 of 7 in the Automating Less Toxic Choices series
Living the Science Resources and Recommendations: Bring Water With You The Living the Science Clean & Green Marketplace includes books about chemicals and their effects on human health as well as hundreds of natural and non-toxic consumer products. Products are also available directly through Amazon.com and include:
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