I recently watched a documentary from 2009 called “Tapped” which talks about the controversies surrounding the bottled water industry and how it is virtually free to do as it pleases and that the water it sells is actually unsafe to drink. Naturally, I didn’t take this independently made film at its word, but after a bit of research what I have found is actually quite disturbing.
Nestle is the largest bottled water company in the United States and made $3.6 billion in 2008 on bottled water sales alone. Every day, companies like Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola pump millions of gallons of fresh water out of public sources for free, filter it, package it and sell it back to the public at nearly 2,000 times the cost of ordinary tap water; not only is this process completely unregulated, but it has a negative effect on the surrounding population as water levels end up being drastically reduced, which also has an adverse effect on plant and aquatic life.
On top of that, the contents of bottled water are virtually unregulated, even by the Food and Drug Administration, because if it is produced and sold in the same state it is not under FDA jurisdiction. According to Lauren Robin, who is the sole overseer of regulations of bottled water in the country, “bottled water companies aren’t required to submit a regular report to the FDA or to the public,” and that they “do their own testing on their own sources.”
Since about 70 percent of all bottled water purchased is done within state lines, most of it is never tested by the FDA, and even then only one person at the FDA isn’t enough to fully fulfill the responsibilities involved in keeping the American public safe.
The industry implies that tap water is unhealthy, impure and unsafe, yet tap water is far more regulated to meet safety and health standards than bottled water. Ironically, 40% of bottled water, such as Dasani and Aquafina, are merely filtered tap water. This claim by the industry that tap water is less safe than their own is completely false because municipalities that have over a million citizens are required to test their water 300 times a month, which is far more than the industry can say about themselves.
In fact, in a study done by TestAmerica, high levels of dangerous chemicals, such as vinyl chloride, butadiene, styrene, benzene, toluene, etc., were found to be present in bottled water taken just off the shelves. Many of the chemicals found are extremely hazardous, neurotoxic and are linked to “adverse reproductive outcomes” as well as other health issues.
Aside from the chemicals found in the water itself, the plastic bottles themselves are made at petrochemical plants. If you look at the recycling code on the bottom of the bottle you’ll see P.E.T. or P.E.T.E, polyethylene terephthalate, the primary ingredient of which is p-Xylene which is derived from refining crude oil and is known to cause cancer.
The larger water jugs and coolers you find in offices and homes around the country are made from a plastic that contains a chemical called bisphenol A which is extraordinarily toxic to human beings, and this chemical is also found in baby bottles and sports bottles. Bisphenol A is linked to every major health problem over the past 30 years including diabetes, obesity, breast cancer, prostate cancer, brain disorders and the list goes on.
In short, bottled water is unsafe to drink and the American public should stop consuming it until the demands to properly regulate the industry are met. There is a reason that there have been thousands of cases of negative health effects caused by the industry and their products, and everyone should take notice because it is no minor issue and the corporations that control it all will not change until the public demands it.
