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Why Tap Water and not Bottled Water?
Everyone uses it and we're all guilty of buying water 2000 times more expensive than tap. Bottled water has been a trend and people are used to the convenience of just being able to open a bottle of pristine
"clean" water. But the reality of bottled water is that its dirty and expensive. Most brands of bottled water is from municipal tap water, for example Evian is from Guelph tap water. The ironic thing about Evian bottled water is that, its naive spelt backwards. These companies are trying to fool consumers into thinking that bottled water is the way to go, they also tell people that tap water is dirty and polluted. The posters and ads that they have is basically consumer propaganda.
What are the effects of Bottled Water?
Bottled water is way dirtier than tap water because it isn't regulated and the plastic bottle leaches harmful chemicals into the water. When the water is left in the bottle to sit for months and months, it can leach PET or polyethylene terephthalate, terephthalic acid (PTA) and monoethylene glyc
ol (MEG) . These harmful chemicals are linked to cancer and birth defects. Not only are chemicals leached, but most often chemicals are added.
Not only is bottled water not good for our bodies, it also wreaks havoc on our ecosystem. The pollution that is created from bottled water factories is astonishing, it takes one liter of water just to produce a 500ml bottled of water. It also takes a lot of petroleum oil to produce these water bottles because it is the main ingredient of plastic water bottles. Many think that the bottles are recycled but the fact is that many are shipped off to developing nations and are being "down cycled." Meaning, the bottles are just left in landfills or in people's backyard. Imagine people in developing nations having thousands of used bottles in their backyard. You wouldn't want that in your backyard so why sh
ould someone else have your trash? The recycling system is just not equipped to handle this much recycling and much of it has to be put else where.
How dirty is bottled water?
Well according to the CBC more than 70% of bottled water in Canada contains bacteria levels 100 times more than allowed level. This report was published in May 2010 therefore it is quite recent. "The U.S. bacterial limit is no more than 500 colony-forming units of bacteria per milliliter of water. Health Canada does not have an equivalent standard for bacteria in bottled water. Canadian test samples showed results of
more than 80,000 heterotrophic units." (CBC). The reason for the high levels of bacteria is that bottled water companies are not mandated as to when they have to test their water quality. These companies can test water as frequent as they want, and the tests are not conducted by the government. Water companies can test their water up to every 4 years. Also the bottled water companies self check their water, which isn't very reliable because they can lie about their water quality. Not to mention that bottled water sits for a long time before it is drank, therefore existing bacteria can even increase."Development and Peace | New DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE Campaign - Water Should Not Be Privatized." Development and Peace | Développement Et Paix. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. .
"The Effects of Bottled Water on the Environment." All About Water - Read, Learn, and Know about Water. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. .
Press, The Canadian. "CBC News - Consumer Life - Plastic Bottles Leach Chemicals into Water: Study." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. .
Serebrin, Jacob. "Why Ban Bottled Water? – - Macleans OnCampus." Web. 22 Jan. 2011.
Commented on Natasha http://natashasbioblog.blogspot.com/ and Debbie http://debsbioblog.blogspot.com/
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