HOWEVER bottled-water means you know what you're getting. Tap water has added chemicals such as fluoride.
Both videos address your comments and claim that plastic water bottles may be quite toxic. Please watch. A few footnotes:
3. Municipal water in the U.S. is regulated by the Environmental
Protection Agency, which does frequent testing, as do local
authorities. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act empowers EPA to
require water testing by certified laboratories and that violations
be reported within a specified time frame. Public water systems
must also provide reports to customers about their water, noting its source, evidence of contaminants and compliance with regulations.
The Food and Drug Administration, on the other hand, regulates
bottled water as a food and cannot require certified lab testing or
violation reporting. FDA monitors the labeling of bottled water, but
the bottlers themselves are responsible for testing kind of like
the fox guarding the henhouse. Furthermore, FDA doesnt require
bottled water companies to disclose where the water came from,
how it was treated or what contaminants it contains. For a good
article on the topic, see The New York Times, Fewer Regulations for
Bottled Water Than Tap, GAO Says, at
The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
gwire/2009/07/09/09greenwire-fewer-regulations-for-bottled-water-than-tap-g-33331.html
In a survey of 188 brands of bottled water, the Environmental
Working Group (EWG) found only two providing such information
about its product to consumers. Based on extensive research and
testing, EWG developed a bottled water scorecard where you
can compare brands, and learn more about the process of testing,
labeling, and marketing bottled water:
Health/Toxics | Environmental Working Group
report/bottledwater-scorecard-summary
13. An article of July 27, 2007 on CNN.Money.com said: Pepsi-Cola
announced Friday that the labels of its Aquafina brand bottled water
will be changed to make it clear the product is tap water. The new bottles will say, The Aquafina in this bottle is purified water that
originates from a public water source, or something similar, Pepsi-
Cola North America spokeswoman Nicole Bradley told CNN. Coca-
Cola does not have plans to change the labeling on its Dasani brand
bottled water, a company spokesman told CNN, despite the fact the
water also comes from a public water supply. Read the article, here:
Pepsi says[bless and do not curse]Aquafina is tap water - Jul. 27, 2007
Now, the companies go to great length to tell you that, while their
water originates from a public water source, it is more than just filtered
tap water. They boast proprietary, state-of-the-art, multi-stage
filtration processes and esoteric references to mineral additives that
make their water more than just water, and certainly better than tap.
But, as Tony Clarke of Canadas Polaris Institute points out in his
book, Inside the Bottle (2005), unlike other resource production
processes, where raw materials like timber, minerals, and oil are
transformed into new products, bottled water is different. Bottled
water is about turning water into water. (Inside the Bottle, 54.)
27. At the heart of the water issues is the fact that literally billions
of people around the world including in parts of the U.S.
and other rich countries do not have access to safe drinking
water. The causes are complex, including both man-made
political and economic causes, and natural causes; in short,
it might be the water, it might be the pipes or it might be
the lack of water or the lack of pipes. In either case, selling
bottled water (or even giving it away as some companies
and organizations do as part of relief efforts in emergencies),
will not fix the problem. The real fix is more public investment
in water infrastructure, and community control of that
infrastructure to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable
communities have their needs met. Even in places where both
tourists and locals are urged to not drink the water, the
long-term solution is not to avoid tap water but to make the
tap water safe to drink. Yes, this solution will cost money, but
at least its an investment in something permanent, and that
benefits everyone.
http://www.storyofstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/storyofbottledwater_footnoted_script.pdf
