Bottled Water - Deal or No Deal?

For this assignment, we were asked to consider the safety and cost-effectiveness of bottled water. I referenced three web sites.

Sierra Club's bottled water campaign
The Sierra Club web site lists false advertising, packaging and marketing as a major issue. It indicates that bottled water costs approximately 1000 times more than tap water!



This site also points out that Nestle received $9MM in tax credits while 20,000 families had their water turned off due to lack of payment. They cited this as an injustice and in opposition to the United Nations stance that water is a basic human right and need.

Independent bottled water testing found bacteria, toxic chemicals and chlorination byproducts in some bottled waters, so it is also not safe to assume that bottled water is safer than tap water. The massive sales of bottled water is also creating a tremendous amount of trash!

International Bottled Water Association

Bottled Water
The FDA expects states to approve the water sources for bottled water, because the states regulate the bottled water industry. States also have their own bottled water regulations.

The IBWA states that the FDA is only responsible for verifying compliance, and that the states are responsible for inspecting and testing water sources and bottled water. There are no specifications regarding how often inspections are to be performed, and bottled water is treated as a food product by the FDA. Therefore, there is more regulation regarding packaging and labeling than there is regarding water quality and contaminants.

Tap Water
The IBWA indicated that there are many variations on regulations for tap water, depending on the source, size of plant, purificaiton process, etc. They proceeded to provide what sounds like an extreme example, where a pubilc water system can qualify for contaminant waivers and reduced testing frequencies. The site continues to state that this waiver process contrasts with the rigorous tesitng standards for bottled water, but because the states regulate and test their own bottled water, there are no checks and balances and no validation for this claim.

For tap water, "N/A" was listed under Compliance and Enforcement, which can lead one to presume that compliance and enforcement are not applicable.

NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) study report on bottled water
This web site has so much information, I am not sure how to summarize what is presents. Even the executive summary is several pages long. However, the site did point out some major FDA gaps, and a couple of them really stood out to me. For example, the FDA rules do not apply to water sourced, packaged and sold in the same state. When a business does fall under the FDA regulations, the rules are not as strict as the EPA rules for tap water. For example, there are no rules prohibiting E. coli or coliform bacterias, and there are no federal disinfection and filtration regulations...just to name two.

My Point of View
Overall, I consider bottled water to be no deal at all. It is not a good deal for my pocketbook, nor is it a good deal for my health or the Earth's health (trash). I do drink bottled water sometimes, though; such as a replacement for soda when I am out (and facility does not serve from tap), and when I am on the go and tap water in a plastic sports bottle won't meet my needs. But - most of the time, I am drinking tap water anyway. From what I have read, tap water is safer, and it tastes just fine to me!