Striving4Zen

Leading brands of bottled water in the United States contain many of the same contaminants as tap water, according to a study released Wednesday by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group.

The 10 brands of bottled water included in the two-year study were found to contain 38 impurities, including bacteria, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals, the radioactive element strontium and the pain reliever acetaminophen, the Associated Press reported.

"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said study co-author and environmental engineer Jane Houlihan.

While all the bottled water brands met federal health standards for drinking water, two of them violated a California state standard for chlorine. Those two brands were Sam's Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets.

These "alarmist" findings are based on the faulty premise that a contaminant is a health concern "even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set," Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, told the AP.

Source

Labels: bottled or tap, bottled water, chlorine, study, tap water

I have always heard that NYC has some of the country’s best water – but I, and I’m sure many others - chalked it up to an urban myth. However, my friend was quick to explain to me that our water supply is in fact one of the country’s best.
The Catskill Mountains’ watershed supplies NYC with its drinking water, and as a result of its integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration process, New York is one of only 5 major cities in the US with drinking water pure enough to not require purification by water treatment plants.
But is bottled water better for us than tap water? It depends. Believe it or not many brands of bottled water just slightly purify tap water. Add to that the low stringency in regulation for bottled water versus that for municipal water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates municipal water and requires multiple daily tests for bacteria whose results are available to the public. Bottled water is regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which only requires weekly testing that doesn’t have to be publicly reported.

Labels: bottled or tap, NY, water