Drinking bottled water has become an everyday standard for consumers who were sold on the idea that bottled water is cleaner than tap, buying 50 Billion bottles last year, about 157 per person with only 38 of those bottles being recycled. It's been long known that the concept of tap water being terrible for you and bottled water being purer or coming from a better source has been the biggest scam of the bottled water industry.
As I'm collecting facts and interesting info for freepurity.com, I am sharing those with you all here in case you'd like to refresh your knowledge bank and ponder on your own reasons of why you choose bottled water over tap and why you have no problem paying more for a gallon of water than the gasoline when 47.8% of bottled water is tap :).
" To manufacture demand, beverage companies declared war on tap water through advertising. The biggest enemy is tap water," said a Pepsi VP in 2000. "When we're done, tap water will be relegated to irrigation and washing dishes," said Susan D. Wellington of Quaker Oats, the maker of Gatorade. But it's more than just words: Coca-Cola has been in the business of discouraging restaurants from serving tap water, and pushing "less water and more beverage choices."
"Dirty" Water Facts:
- You are paying more per gallon of water than you are for a gallon of gasoline.
- More than 47.8% of bottled water comes from a public water supply. The water is treated, purified and sold at a thousandfold increase in price. Most people are surprised to learn that they’re drinking glorified tap water, but bottlers aren’t required to list the source on the label.
- NRDC tested more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water few years ago. The organization found at least one sample of a third of the bottled water brands contained bacterial or chemical contaminants, including carcinogens, in levels exceeding state or industry standards. No major regulatory changes have been made in over a decade so it's assumed nothing has changed.
- The EPA regulates tap water, while the FDA oversees bottled. The FDA oversight doesn’t apply to water packaged and sold within the same state, leaving some 60 to 70 percent of bottled water, including the contents of watercooler jugs, free of FDA regulation, according to the NRDC’s report.
- Bottlers don’t have to let consumers know if their product becomes contaminated, they just pull their products from stores. In 7 years this happened over 100 times. Among the reasons for recall: contamination with mold, benzene, coliform, microbes, even crickets. Many companies have been sued for false advertising in respect to where they source their water.
- Last summer, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) committee agreed that bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in polycarbonate (used to make watercooler jugs, sport-water bottles and other hard plastics, but not PET), may cause neurological and behavioral problems in fetuses, babies and kids. A separate NIH-sponsored panel found that the risk was even greater, saying that adult exposure to BPA likely affects the brain, the female reproductive system and the immune system.
- While we struggle to cut down on our consumption of fossil fuels, bottled water increases them. Virgin petroleum is used to make PET, and the more bottles we use, the more virgin petroleum will be needed to create new bottles.
- It takes about 72 billion gallons of water a year, worldwide, to make the empty bottles, and it takes about two liters of water to make every liter you see on store shelves.
- The energy used each year making the bottles needed to meet the demand for bottled water in the United States is equivalent to more than 17 million barrels of oil. That’s enough to fuel over 1 million cars for a year.
- That bottle that takes just three minutes to drink can take up to a thousand years to biodegrade.
- In California, tap water costs around one tenth of a cent per gallon, while bottled water is 0.90 cents a gallon.
- 47.8% of bottled water comes from public water sources, same place where tap water comes from. Pepsi's Aquafina and Nestle Pure Water are couple examples.
- 84% of people worry about polluted tap water yet over 90 percent of all national tap water is deemed safe on a state and federal level.
- In taste tests, tap water consistently ranks at or above the level of bottled water.
You and Water:
- 70% of a human’s body weight.
- About 80% of your brain tissue is made of water.
- The average amount of water you need per day? Unlike the claims of you needing at least 8 glasses per day, the real amount really depends on each person.
- By the time you feel thirsty, your body has lost more than 1 percent of its total water.
- Drinking purified water can help you lose weight by increasing your metabolism, which helps burn calories faster.
- The average person could live without food for nearly a month, but we could only survive about one week without water.
- Good hydration can prevent arthritis. With plenty of water in your body, there is less friction in your joints, thus less chance of developing arthritis.
- Drinking enough water everyday can help reduce heart disease and cancer.
- Purified water helps flush toxins out of your body, including the ones found in drinking water no matter what source.
- Good hydration can help reduce cavities and tooth decay by producing more saliva.