Bottled Water

[helwen]

Never mind the BPA in the bottles themselves, how about what's in the water itself?

Not a complete study, but interesting to see what's come up so far. Of particular interest to folks who get bottled water from Walmart (Sam's Choice) and the Acadia brand, which is sold in the mid-Atlantic states.

OTOH, while tap is as good or better than bottled water in some places, that isn't true everywhere. There's folks in the Yakima Valley in Washington state who can't drink the water from their wells because of high concentrations of nitrates from the surrounding dairy farms and orchards. Although I wonder if a really good filtration system would help in the short-term, like a Big Berky system. Deeper wells might help, but some of these folks can afford that even less than buying bottled water. Long-term, the state needs to do something about all the nitrates getting into the water.

I also learned from the above article that some chlorine by-products (possibly from cleaning agents?) are linked to birth defects.

Bottom line, get your water tested or find out from your town what results they've had for water-testing (in Holyoke our department sent out an annual report). If the water in the bottles is no better than your tap water, might as well save the money on buying the bottles.

Comments

[oakmouse]

The Yakima situation is pretty nasty. :-p Realistically, given the geology, I'm not sure the state can do much except ban the use of nitrate-based fertilizer, and in a farm state that'll happen about the time hell freezes solid.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I think the only hope those people have are wells that go deeper and/or that fertilizer becomes too expensive for farmers to buy. The latter is definitely already happening in some areas. Unfortunately that doesn't help them in the short-term, which was why I was wondering if Big Berkey or similar filters might work to filter out the nitrates -- even though they're not cheap, they're cheaper than buying bottled water. Poor people, and poor everything that lives in that area :(

[oakmouse]

Not sure how much deeper they can drill; IIRC it's a single-level aquifer and a deeper drill will simply punch through it and run into dry rock, but I could be wrong. I know that's happened in some other parts of eastern Washington. That would mean filtration.

The Yakima area is already poor financially speaking, and has been for decades. They don't need this on top of the rest of their problems. :-p

[helwen.livejournal.com]

:P Okay, so I'll hope for the cost of nitrate fertilizers to shoot through the roof.... sigh.

Counting my blessings for living where I do...

[oakmouse]

Oh, it will. It's already shot up. The nitrates come from petroleum.

I know the feeling. ;) I'm glad I left eastern Washington a long time ago.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

They put petroleum products on the fields? Oh YUK!! That is something I knew nothing about. How awful!

[oakmouse]

Nitrate fertilizers came primarily from natural sources for a long time (chicken manure, bat guano) but since WWII they've been made in quantity from petroleum products and natural gas. Originally it was mostly natural gas, or so my-dad-the-chemist says, but as that's gotten scarcer they've been using more petroleum.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yup! Petroleum is used for an amazing range of materials these days. Too many.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Easthampton sends out a water quality report every year - I think it's a state law for every municipality with a sewer system. Our water is pretty decent right now, and we like it that way. That's why Easthampton residents are less than pleased with Northampton's plans to enlarge its landfill, which could threaten our aquifer.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I hope your guys are fighting their guys.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what's happening...I'm pretty sure Tautznik (our mayor) is lobbying against the expansion, but the landfill is in Northampton so technically he doesn't have any say.

Not a good situation.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking he should be contacting the appropriate State dept(s), with an aquifer in danger. Then the State can come down on the plan. Um, Environment Dept probably. Although I suppose anyone could contact the State Depts., not just the mayor...

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

It is scary to know just what companies can get away with allowing in plain old bottled water. People buy it because they are worried about the quality of tap water, for instance, but are sometimes getting a raw deal over what is actually included in the bottles. That is bad.

Over here I brita-filter our tap water because it tastes weird to me, and I buy bottled sparkling mineral water as my fizzy pop of choice. :-) The irritating thing about the bottled mineral water is that, although it is organically sourced, the local shop only sells it in 1.5 litre plastic bottles, even though it is available in 1 litre glass bottles, which I prefer because of plastic contaminants. Unfortunately the glass bottles are heavy, and I can't physically carry them home from the supermarket, so until I can persuade the local store to stock the glass bottles I am stuck. At least I can recycle the plastic, so that helps a bit, but I do miss my glass bottles. :-(

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we used a Brita filter when we lived in Holyoke. Haven't bothered since we moved up here -- main problem is occasionally a bit of sediment. If it's a problem the line gets checked out by William and I think Lyle's learning about how things work with the water here.

Sounds like you don't have too many plastic bottles, but yeah, I've been trying to change what I get for drinks partly based on the container -- saves me some unnecessary sugar, since most gas station convenience stores only carry soda in cans and plastic (the cans have a thin plastic liner) and I'm trying to avoid them. OTOH, there's a most excellent ginger beer available at the stores and pizza restaurant in town :) So it isn't all bad.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

Mmmm.... I used to love ginger beer when I was a kid. Must try and find some locally and re-acquaint myself with it. :-)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I hope you find some :)