USA Water Filter Blog

In the last two decades bottled water has gone from extraneous to ubiquitous. Despite having one of the best public water systems in the world, Americans continue to buy more and more bottled water—per capita, 27.6 gallons last year, up from 17.8 gallons in 2000 (and only 1.6 gallons in 1976). Is it worth it?

40% of bottled water—including top-brands Aquafina and Dasani—is simply filtered tap water, not water from natural springs or other “pure” sources.

In the United States, more than 10 million barrels of oil are used to bottle water annually—and that’s just production. Consider the oil consumption (and emissions) required to bring water to the U.S. from Fiji, for example.

Americans throw away 22 billion water bottles each year, over 60 million each day. It can take as long as 1,000 years for the average plastic bottle to biodegrade.

Numerous studies have shown that bottled water is generally no safer or healthier than tap water, despite costing up to 10,000 times more.

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100269319

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Are you concerned about the water quality in your home, or do you yearn for better tasting water from your kitchen faucet?

First, consider whether you really need a water purification system in your home. More than 90 percent of the water supply in the United States is safe to drink from the tap, according to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

However, some people may need to consider a water purification system to improve water quality in their homes for health safety reasons, including those who have:

• A high level of lead in their water, as shown by water testing
• A high level of a contaminant in their water, such as radon in water from a well
• An extremely compromised immune system, such as those with HIV or who are on chemotherapy

Water purification systems can help to eliminate contaminants that can make you sick or affect the taste or feel of your water supply. Water filter systems may be able to remove:

• Microbes, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites, such as cryptosporidium and giardia
• Lead
• Radon
• Radium
• Nitrates
• Arsenic
• Pesticides
• Byproducts of the disinfection process
• http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-home/food-and-water/improve-drinking-water-at-home.aspx

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If you take medication with a glass of tap water, you may be getting more medicine than your doctor prescribed. A study by the Associated Press on the presence of pharmaceuticals in the nation’s water supply has identified an alarming array of prescription substances that are reaching more than 40 million Americans in cities across the country.

It’s happening as much from the drugs we take and then excrete through normal bodily waste into our sewer and septic systems, as from human, agricultural and even veterinary practices. But people also flush unused pharmaceuticals down the toilet and pour them down drains, and they get leached from landfills. While so far the concentrations have been acknowledged to be small — holding steady at a parts-per-billion or trillion metric — the spectrum of medications is significant, including antibiotics (both human and veterinary), analgesics, antidepressants, cholesterol-lowering and anti-hypertension drugs, anti-convulsants, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, reproductive hormones, and chemicals common in plastics, as well as insecticides, fire retardants and solvents. (An article last week in Environmental Health Perspectives highlighted the issues concerning environmental pollutants.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-d-braunstein-md/prescription-tap-water-wh_b_809870.html?ir=Green

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I was at an event recently where a friend bought me a bottle of water. I appreciated the generousity but felt at odds with the bottle. It was one of those moments of . . . there’s a phrase for it . . . ‘cognitive dissonance’.

Bottled water has been named the poster child for conspicuous consumption, and I would have to agree.

There are so many reasons for refusing to buy it that I am not sure if there’s room in this little column to list them.

And there are also a couple of good reasons for buying it, I must admit. It’s super-convenient and a healthier choice than sugary alternatives. Having said that up front, I now move into the opposite camp.

First up: municipal water in Canada and south of the border is more regulated than the bottled variety. Municipalities, at least in Ontario, are required to test water several times a day in order to meet provincial regulations.

Bottled water is regulated under the Canadian Food and Drugs Act as a low-risk product tested every one to three years.

Then there is the landfill issue. Yes, the empties can be recycled, but the statistics that I keep unearthing point out that the great majority of them are not.

A 2004 study by the plastics industry showed 65 per cent of plastic beverage bottles in Ontario were not recycled. An appreciable amount, considering Agriculture and Agrifoods Canada reports Ontarians consumed one billion litres of bottled water in 2006.

But aside from the landfill problem, even if every bottle were recycled, it still takes energy and oil to turn all that plastic into bottles, whether or not it is from recycled materials.

Alternatively, we could just turn on the tap.

http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/from-the-wires/wire-news-display/1348649089.html

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The bottled water industry is all wet when it comes to providing information to customers about the source and purity of its products, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group says in a new survey of 173 bottled water brands.

The Environmental Working Group previously surveyed bottled water labels in 2009, finding that only two of 188 brands described the source, treatment and purity of their water. Even though the government has pressured the industry to be more transparent, things haven’t improved much since then, according to the EWG. This time around, only three of the 173 brands provided the three basic facts: Gerber Pure Purified Water, Nestle Pure Life Purified Water and Penta Ultra Purified Water

The survey identified six brands, including Whole Foods’ Italian Still Mineral Water, as the worst offenders, saying they provide consumers “with none of the three basic facts about their water, either on labels or on company web­sites.” Among the 10 best-selling brands, nine — Pepsi’s Aquafina, Coca-Cola’s Dasani, Crystal Geyser and six of seven Nestlé brands — fail to list at least one of the basic facts.

According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, the average American consumed 20.1 gallons of bottled water in 2002. By 2007 that figure had risen to 29.3 gallons, up nearly 46 percent. “Many brands fill their labels with vague claims of a pristine source or perfect purity — but no real facts,” EWG, which favors filtered tap water, says. “If people are willing to pay up 1,900 times the cost of tap water in order to buy water in a plastic bottle, they deserve better than that.”

http://www.fairwarning.org/2011/01/report-faults-lack-of-transparency-in-bottled-water-labeling/

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The days of bottled water in Burnaby schools may be numbered. Students from environmental clubs in local high schools are campaigning for people to choose tap water over bottled water to help protect the environment and reduce waste.

“This is the only planet we have. We have to try and take care of it to make sure future generations have the same things we have today,” said Kevin Hua, spokesperson for Alpha Secondary’s environmental club.

The group of about 20 students brought in local resident Peter Cech from Metro Vancouver to talk about the regional government’s tap water campaign.

Metro Vancouver, which supplies Burnaby’s tap water, is also pushing for people to switch to tap water instead of single-use plastic bottles.

Since Cech’s presentation, the students have signed up others in their school to take a pledge to drink tap water, and they’ve had some water fountains fixed, they’ve ordered some stainless steel water bottles to sell. They also collected petition signatures, asking the school district to renegotiate contracts with the vending machine companies to sell less bottled water in schools.

Reno Ciolfi is the district’s director of instruction. He’s also the staff member designated to handle environmental initiatives, so he’s been working with the students on the bottled water issue and is on side.

http://www.burnabynow.com/technology/Turn/4188937/story.html

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Bottled water will soon be a thing of the past at the University of Canberra (UC) in Australia. At the prompting of student activists connected to the environmental group Do Something, the school has decided to cease all sales of bottled water beginning March 22, and provide drinking water through both conventional water fountains and water machines that fill reusable drinking containers.

“By supplying free water and cheap, chilled water, the university will be helping students to break abottled waterhabit that’s costing Australians half-a-billion dollars a year,” said John Dee, founder of Do Something. “If the 13,000studentsand staff at the University of Canberra can do this, there’s no reason why every other university inAustraliacannot do the same.”

The South Wales town of Bundanoon bannedwaterbottles back in 2009, upon which it installed the same water machines and fountains that UC plans to install. And according to Dee, the new water systems are both better for health and better forthe environment.

http://www.naturalnews.com/031145_bottled_water_university.html

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I had my eyes pried wide open tonight!  While searching for something to watch, I came across a documentary called Tapped.  The description was enough to make me want to at least start watching it and give it a chance.  Through the process of watching the documentary and doing a little more research, I am convinced that I’m done with my water bottle addiction.  Until now, like so many others, I’ve thought it safer and healthier to drink bottled water, particularly Arrowhead.  Of course when I was in a pinch I would grab a Dasani or Aquafina, but not anymore.

Take a look at just these few bits of information and then watch the documentary for yourself, do some homework and then tell me why anyone should ever buy another bottle of water again:

• The average price mark up for a bottle of water is 1900%
• After all processing, bottling and shipping costs, your water costs the manufacturer $.06 – $.09 on average.
• The plastic your water bottle is made of leaks cancer causing chemicals each passing day that it’s stored in the bottle and the amount leaked increases if the bottle is exposed to heat at any point in time (during shipping, in the store’s warehouse, in your trunk)
• Municipal water (tap water) is tested upwards of 300 times a day for contaminates and biological hazards (bacteria), and that is reported to government offices daily and typically posted on the internet for you to review. Bottled water companies are not required to report to anyone, not even the FDA, and typically only test their water once a week or once a month depending on the company.
• Most of your bottled water is simply filtered tap water from the local municipal source.  The filtration process is not as good as you can do at home.  Nestle, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others are taking your groundwater away from you during times of drought when you are being placed under tight restrictions and financial fines, then selling that water back to you for a ridiculous profit, all while polluting your body and mother earth during the manufacturing of the bottles and bottling of that water.

http://paranormalutopia.com/2011/01/water011/

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have had the opportunity to work closely with Jean Hill over the past three months to draft her article and help her navigate the Town Meeting process. During that time I have learned a lot about the many serious issues involving bottled water. There are many good online sources for information. A few of these are the websites of the national environmental organizations Food and Water Watch,Corporate Accountability International and the Sierra Club. The Alliance for Democracy also participates in the effort through their Defending Water for Life program. I’ve read the book “Bottled and Sold” by Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute. The Pacific Institute’s information on bottled water can be found at www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/. Or you can check out www.defendingwater.net to learn about how our small-town neighbors in Maine are taking action to retain control over their local water resources.

I have very much enjoyed working with Jean. I have been impressed by her commitment to making real change. In drafting her article, she has been willing to address the concerns that she has heard while retaining the essence of what she believes will be effective. I admire Jean’s passion, her refreshingly direct talk, and her persistence in advocating for what she believes is right. Concord has been home to many extraordinary people. We are lucky to have Jean in our midst.

Jean speaks truth to power. It is time to take a firm stand on the bottled water issue. I fully support Article #38: Drinking Water in Single-Serving PET Bottles Bylaw. I encourage you to engage in this issue and to support this article. Contactbackthetap@gmail.com for more information and to get involved.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/thisjustin/x1868081459/LETTER-Take-a-firm-stand-on-bottled-water

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Modern society has created the illusion that water is infinite and free, but the environmentally and financially conscious know that’s far from the truth.

DealNews provides a list of easy life adjustments you can make to cut down on water usage and possibly douse your water bill.

Suggestions from the post include:

*Get a water-saving toilet. Some toilets on the market use less than a gallon per flush. Install one of these babies and it could save you more than 20,000 gallons of water per year.

*Use a dishwasher rather than hand-wash. Most modern dishwashers are far more efficient than the old-timey sink-and-dish towel method, potentially using 37 percent less water. Just make sure those loads are full.

*Avoid bottled water. The post cites the Pacific Institute, which says it takes three gallons of water to produce a gallon of bottled water.  A point of use water filter will give you bottled quality water at a fraction of the cost of bottled.

If you make it a point to restrict your water use, how do you operate?

http://consumerist.com/2011/01/cut-down-on-water-use-with-these-tricks.html

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