Sunday, September 10, 2006

I've been duped by bottled water

I tried to give Tom a bottled water the other day and he refused it saying he took issue with bottled water. I was puzzled by that. Surely, bottled water tastes better than tap water. It's been put through all of that filtering and testing and must be better for us.

Today the Tribune ran an article about bottled water and guess what, Tom's right. It turns out "across the board, people can't tell the difference. Over 1,000 people have taken the test in more than a dozen cities, and the overwhelming sentiment from them is that they have been duped. The dirty secret about clean water is that regulation of bottled water is weaker than regulation of tap water. And a quarter or more of all bottle-water brands obtain their water from the same place you do--municipal water systems. These include such leading brands as Coca-Cola's Dasani and Pepsi's Aquafina." And since bottled water does not contain fluoride like most tap water does, it can actually contribute to tooth decay!! The difference is, bottled water can cost up to $10 per gallon instead of the 50 cents per gallon that tap water costs!

I'm convinced. I still think Chicago water has a bit of a bleach odor, so I think I will run it through my Brita pitcher and fill up my water bottles with tap water. Certainly I can put the money to better use than supporting Coca-Cola and other mega corporations.

No comments: