Thursday, February 16, 2006

Water: It's what's on tap


I listen to a Sacramento-area radio show online every morning (I got addicted to the Armstrong and Getty show when I lived in Vacaville, Calif.)
This morning they were talking about a series of articles in the New York Times that exposed bottled water as no safer than tap water. This was also previously discussed by many news outlets including this report right here by John Stossel.

During the discussion about the silliness of people buying water, and spending $9 billion a year on it no less, one of the hosts talked about recently being at a party and being "caught" by a fellow partygoer getting a glass of water from the tap.

"You're drinking tap water?" the surprised witness said.
"Yeah" the host replied
"I guess I should start doing that too, to toughen up." the Peace Corps bound witness said.

What?!?
So ridiculous. The host then said people at the party looked at him as if he had dunked his glass into the toilet and took a long draw.
That's unbelievable!
Tap water is A-OK.
Evian really is naive spelled backwards.

6 comments:

cube said...

The best of both worlds is to have a filter/conditioner on your faucet. Cheaper and better for you.

Jessica said...

When I lived in Davis, Calif. we had crappy well water that I wouldn't drink. Even Tang tasted extra funny when made with that water. But now we're on well water that tastes really good, so I drink it. I'm not afraid!
My FIL won't drink tap water though if his life depended on it. He buys giant jugs of bottled water from WalMart. To each, his own.

Freebird said...

The water in Houston is nasty so I have bought a gallon pitcher at Walmart that I just change out the filter to every few months. I can really taste the difference. I wouldn't buy bottled water though. Too expensive when I just fill my pitcher at home.

Robert said...

California did a study on that back in the early 90's coming to the same conclusion. They argued that many bottle waters were actually less safe because they removed clorine from the water. One of the worst sources of contaminated water are those self-serve units outside the grocery stores (because everyone's hands reach in there).

I told a friend to call her bottled water company (Sparklets) and ask them if their water was safer. They said, "No it's not safer, it just tastes better."

Hilary & Greg said...

Davis water was super gnar. Like, it wasn't clear. And senior year, when we didn't bother to get a Brita, my roommate and I started breaking out a lot more than usual. We tried an experiment of only drinking bottled water, and the blemishes (for the most part) went away. The bottles may have been a bit spendy, but well worth it.

Jessica said...

Not just that, but the bottled water doesn't have the added fluoride either. Also, all those tiny bottles are littering up the world.
I'm thinking of investing in one of those little faucet filters myself, just for peace of mind. They're not that expensive.