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The Hidden Life of Bottled Water 19 y
by Liza Gross
Americans used to turn on their faucets when they craved a drink of clear, cool water. Today, concerned about the safety of water supplies, they’re turning to the bottle. Consumers spent more than $4 billion on bottled water last year, establishing the fount of all life as a certifiably hot commodity. But is bottled really better?
You might think a mountain stream on the label offers some clue to the contents. But sometimes, to paraphrase Freud, a bottle is just a bottle. ”Mountain water could be anything,” warns Connie Crawley, a health and nutrition specialist at the University of Georg ... read more Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype? 19 y
While bottled water marketing conveys images of purity, inadequate regulations offer no assurance.
Sales of bottled water in this country have exploded in recent years, largely as a result of a public perception of purity driven by advertisements and packaging labels featuring pristine glaciers and crystal-clear mountain springs. But bottled water sold in the United States is not necessarily cleaner or safer than most tap water, according to a four-year scientific study recently made public by NRDC.
NRDC’s study included testing of more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. While most of the tested waters were found to be of high quality, some brands were contaminated: a ... read more Bottled, or Tap Water? 19 y
How does tap water compare with bottled water?
According to a study published in the Archives of Family Medicine (March 2000), you can probably put away your wallet and save your pennies. Tap water is likely to offer you more health benefits and is likely to be more ”pure” than most brands of bottled water.
The study, conducted in Ohio, compared the levels of bacteria in 57 samples of bottled water vs. tap-water samples collected from four different water-processing plants. Bacterial counts were measured to determine whether they fell within an acceptable range. Bacterial counts in the bottled water samples ranged from less than 0.0 ... read more Tap water can be purer than bottled 19 y
The truth about bottled water
Tap water can be purer than bottled
April 1, 1999
BY MARSHA LOW
AND ERIN LEE MARTIN
Free Press Staff Writers
The labels promise bliss in a bottle: pure, fresh water delivered straight from a mountain stream.
But marketing is more glamorous than reality in much of the $4-billion bottled-water industry, a national research group reported this week. And Michigan is no exception.
Consider Absopure, a brand common in metro Detroit stores. The company pulls about 5 percent of its mineral water from a well between a strip mall and a gas station in Southfield.
Safe? State tests say yes. Bu ... read more |