ABOUT
Enviroblog is a project of Environmental Working Group, covering public health, environmental policy, and better
consumer choices. (Meet our authors here.)
TIPS
Did we miss something? Email Amanda.
BLOGROLL
FEED
KEEP IN TOUCH
Sign up below for EWG's bimonthly email updates.
« Like Mother, Like Baby | Main | Organic Fast Food Coming to NYC »
July 17, 2006
The bottle-versus-the-tap debate
Today, The L.A. Times reveals that consumers spend 10 billion dollars annually on bottled water which undergoes a far less scrupulous testing regimen than big-city tap water systems. Municipalities are required to test for fecal coliform bacteria over 100 times per month and to make their results public, while bottled water facilities are only required to perform these tests once weekly and do not have to publicize their findings. This information--coupled with a June United Nations Environmental Program report finding an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating near the surface of every square mile of ocean--may be good encouragement to stick with tap water.
Sally Squires, author of the LA Times piece, suggests drinking your water--whether bottled or tap-- cold, for improved taste.
Comments
I heard this once and never forgot it. No idea if true, but makes you wonder. Supposedly, well before bottled water was heard of, there was a man who said he could get Americans to buy anything, including bottled water. So he produced Evian water, which is naive backwards.Hmmmmm...
Posted by: Lisa | August 30, 2006 3:10 PM