Reader comments: Bottled water also contains contaminants
6 comments | Read story
Bob G | 6:27 a.m. Oct. 15, 2008
Being the curious type I have bought electronic testers and run tests myself on bottled water verses tap water and very little difference in PH and TDS (total dissolved solids). My conslucions were that bottled water is tap water in a bottle. For trully clean water free of contaminates water must be filtered by an expensive osmosis system and not just filtration. Government standards on drinking water is very loose and broad and left to the water suppliers discrimination as to how pure it is and how it tastes. And federal government standards have no criminal enforcement or penalties attached. They control state standards by controlling government financial donations. In Utah, there are very few utility companies filtering drinking water except for certain chemicals and that is usually done at waste treatment plants after it has been through our water systems. Bottled water is sourced at supplies that have better tasting water and then put it on the shelves. Filtered water from a refrigerator is just as pure as bottled water on the shelves, and its only pennies a gallon. So the findings are true and only source makes the difference with few if any changes made by bottlers.
lndmom | 8:47 a.m. Oct. 15, 2008
We were very content to drink tap water until the government decided to poison it with fluoride (the vote was very close). Now we drink bottled water and will continue to do so until the fluoride is removed from our tap water.
Reverse osmosis is the only way to remove fluoride from tap water. Then you need an ionization system to restore beneficial minerals lost in RO. The whole set-up and maintenance of the system is more expensive than buying bottled water.
I make sure the bottled water we buy is from a reliable source and does not contain fluoride, which can be found in several brands.
Also, this article is somewhat skewed from the actual report I've read. While there are contaminates found in all brands (of course!), eight of the ten brands tested didn't have high enough levels of contaminants to warrant further testing, as determined by the testers themselves! That included levels of chemicals leaching from the plastic. Only two brands, Sam's Choice and Acadia, had high enough levels of contaminants to warrant further testing.
Yet this article makes it sound like ALL bottled water is bad. More of the same media hype and bias.
Reverse osmosis is the only way to remove fluoride from tap water. Then you need an ionization system to restore beneficial minerals lost in RO. The whole set-up and maintenance of the system is more expensive than buying bottled water.
I make sure the bottled water we buy is from a reliable source and does not contain fluoride, which can be found in several brands.
Also, this article is somewhat skewed from the actual report I've read. While there are contaminates found in all brands (of course!), eight of the ten brands tested didn't have high enough levels of contaminants to warrant further testing, as determined by the testers themselves! That included levels of chemicals leaching from the plastic. Only two brands, Sam's Choice and Acadia, had high enough levels of contaminants to warrant further testing.
Yet this article makes it sound like ALL bottled water is bad. More of the same media hype and bias.
MAYHEM MIKE | 8:49 a.m. Oct. 15, 2008
I remember a "blind" test done years ago by Consumer Reports. . . Subjects tasted various "bottled" waters and rated them for taste. Which bottled water won? New York City tap water!! When I was in New York, I tried tap water and found it excellent.
Comments continue below
Anonymous | 11:31 a.m. Oct. 15, 2008
lndmom | 8:47 Military bases have florinated their water since the sixties. You can't statistically show their water created any problems to those drinking it.
lndmom | 9:01 p.m. Oct. 15, 2008
Anonymous: You can't statistically show fluoridated water DOESN'T create problems. Just because it's done doesn't make it correct. That's like a teenager whining to his parents that all the other kids are doing it so why shouldn't he?
I have an old dictionary that defines fluoride as rat poison. Funny, you don't see that definition in the new dictionaries.
Fluoride can only be obtained through a prescription from an MD. Why would I want prescription meds added to my drinking water? Isn't it already contaminated enough? What's next? Appetite suppressants to ward off obesity or make a shrinking food supply stretch further?
Since when does Government decide for me which medication I should ingest and which I should not?
Even worse, fluoride's being administered across the entire community without any thought for what an individual may want or need. Kind of flies in the face of controlling it with a prescription, eh?
My issue with fluoridated water is as much about preserving my freedom of choice as it is about wanting to avoid a poisonous susbstance in any amount. Personally, I don't care what my neighbor wants to put in his water. Just don't insist that I drink it, too.
I have an old dictionary that defines fluoride as rat poison. Funny, you don't see that definition in the new dictionaries.
Fluoride can only be obtained through a prescription from an MD. Why would I want prescription meds added to my drinking water? Isn't it already contaminated enough? What's next? Appetite suppressants to ward off obesity or make a shrinking food supply stretch further?
Since when does Government decide for me which medication I should ingest and which I should not?
Even worse, fluoride's being administered across the entire community without any thought for what an individual may want or need. Kind of flies in the face of controlling it with a prescription, eh?
My issue with fluoridated water is as much about preserving my freedom of choice as it is about wanting to avoid a poisonous susbstance in any amount. Personally, I don't care what my neighbor wants to put in his water. Just don't insist that I drink it, too.
H2oh! | 12:03 a.m. Oct. 16, 2008
Glad I won't have to deal with this issue. For my food storage I just bought ten cases of dehydrated water.
Add your comment
Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.
Words Remaining


