• Please note that there are a few updates and clarifications made in the Audiokarma Rules, mostly relating to advertising and the addition of the new "Paying it Forward" & "Giving back" forums in the AudioKarma Audio Marketplace section.

Top bottled water brands contaminated with plastic particles: report

Supposedly, municipal water is tested more stringently than bottled water. I've always thought that the whole bottled water phenomenon was kind of a scam.

We drink RO filtered water from our Co-op. I like to add trace minerals back in, since Reverse Osmosis filters take out all the minerals, and there is some evidence that water without any minerals in it is not great to drink. The last house we lived in had a RO filter system, which was quite nice. We are hoping to buy a home soon, and I would seriously consider putting one in.

As far as municipal water, everyone is supposed to get a yearly report. They are also available here.

The resources need to bottle water, and the amount of plastic trash created by what is essentially a single use bottle, is pretty disturbing. It's pretty easy to convince people through advertising that they NEED something, even if it's plastic contaminated water, in a plastic bottle, wrapped in more plastic, all made from millions of barrels of oil...

On the brighter side, it looks like plant based plastics are on the horizon, especially made from industrial hemp. Even Lego says they are hoping to move to hemp based plastic for all their products by 2030.
 
grillebilly said:
I'm skeptical of most everything, especially "studies". If the plastic particles were large enough to be a problem there surely would of been some earlier repercussions. Probably not a concern.
My personal opinion is bottled water is a gigantic scam. Most of us have access to good clean water for free, and many have special filters in our home to further purify the water. The commercials telling us how many empty plastic bottle we dispose of is disturbing. We should be smarter than that.
Looks like in America alone, 29 billion water bottles a year. Worldwide, a million plastic bottles a minute.
http://waterbottles.healthyhumanlife.com/plastic-water-bottle-pollution-plastic-bottles-end/
Click to expand...

Good link about the environmental issues related to plastic bottles. That is a huge issue. Hate to think about all of that crap floating around in the oceans.
 
216620_29-09-2017_09-05-29.jpg


Those green bits? Basically islands of floating plastic.
 
As far as I know (which might not be anything), the water that comes out of your taps or faucets is tested to and held to a higher standard than any of these bottled waters.

The water where Iive currently is from a well. The residue it leaves behind on the tub, particularly where it sticks to soap scum (OK so I don't clean my tub every week) is blue. I have been told this means that it is higher in copper, despite most of the pipes being change to PVC when the "great flood" happened about five years ago. I use it for bathing/showering, washing clothes, and brushing teeth. When I move, I would probably drink the city water as it comes, or maybe pass it through a Brita filter.

Still on the subject of bottled water, I used to buy the store brand gallon jugs to make my tea with. I found that there was a lot of build up at the bottom of the kettle, despite cleaning it regularly by boiling white vinegar in it. Switching over to Poland Spring, I get none of this build up.

Lee.
 
Our water comes from a surface reservoir, took a tour of the filter plant - pretty impressive. Drinking water runs through a filter in the line to the fridge. Good water here. Expensive water here too. And horrible sewer rates. Beer in a glass bottle for me.
 
Deer Park here. Originally it was bought in self defense, my well water was truly horrible. It managed to pass drinking water standards but water that is yellow, smells bad, and randomly tastes of salt is not what I'm interested in drinking. The new well largely took care of that. Its high in iron and maganese now but at least its clear and doesn't smell foul. Still not the most awesome tasting though. The water softener takes care of the iron and maganese but it leaves it tasting a bit odd IMO.

So yeah, still get deliveries of the 5 gallon bottles.
 
I have never purchased bottled water in my life, and have only drank it one time, at a outdoor wedding.
And am on city supplied water.

I currently, for mostly taste reasons, use water/ice that first passes through a .5 micron cartridge line filter before it enters the fridge, which then gets filtered within the fridge`s replaceable cartridge filter, and I get twice the life out of it`s $ 35 ~50.00 replacement filter..
And for drinking, coffee, libation mix needs, cooking, some glass cleaning, etc. I use water from that source that`s run through a Brita pitcher.

Friends who have run out of their bottled water whilst visiting, have let me refill their bottle with my multi filtered water, and liked it`s neutral taste over the various brands of bottled water that they have been drinking..
And I`ve tried to talk them into just buying a Brita pitcher and just refilling their overly priced bottled water bottles, but sadly, their too lazy, by their own admission..
Since using this method, my coffee, not only tastes better, I never have to flush the coffee maker out with vinegar anymore, and it`s nearly 10 years old, with daily use, and I have checked & flushed with vinegar several times in the beginning of my tri filer method, and turned out to be a waste of vinegar, as no minerals(usually cloudy in the past) seem to be present in the coffee pot afterwards when held up to the light..
I know that my tri filtering doesn`t remove Fluoride, but that is of little concern for me..

I used to use distilled water years ago, and still do for topping off non maintenance free car batteries, flushing and then 50/50 mixing with antifreeze for radiators for zero mineral crusty build up, even in my 1987 Astro van, and 1999 liquid cooled whole house standby 25 kw generator that I maintain..

Anyway FWIW folks.

Kind regards, OKB
 
I'm fine with bottled water. It's H2O. I just can't see how they sell it so cheap. I drink the Food Lion bottled water. Bottled here in NC. They sell a 28 bottle case for $1.99. They have to be losing money on it, when you consider shipping and stocking. Water is heavy. You can't load large $ amounts on a truck when it's selling in the store for $1.99. They have been selling and I have been buying for years. Oh yeah, each bottle is 16.9 ozs.
 
Our local water is fair but I use Pur filtered water for drinking and some cooking. When I want to take water with me, I use a stainless steel bottle filled from the Pur pitcher. No plastic bottles to refill or throw away.
 
electronjohn said:
If you want tasty water head here: www.findaspring.com. I stop at Dickinson Spring near Buffalo, MN whenever I'm on Hwy 55...yummy cold water. So full of minerals you can almost chew it:)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I forgot about springs. There are a quite a few around here in Vermont. Some are just on the side of back roads with a nice spout someone has built. I fill up bottles when I can.
Growing up, my parents house was fed by a natural spring fed shallow well. So much nicer water than the hard water from deep wells.

Our town water comes from Lake Champlain, and is pretty good, although it does have Fluoride, which I would rather not drink.
This is the process of the water we drink now, which is free with a food Co-op membership. It is actually more extensive than I thought. As I mentioned earlier, I like to add trace minerals back in, both for taste and health reasons.

RO%20Water%20Filtration%20Process.jpg
 
I drink any dadburn water that I can handle the smell of, tap, bottled, etc.
I don't see where it maters really, if the plastic is small enough to pass then hey, I'm okay with that.
Of course if they weren't I reckon I could certainly at least see them floating around in the bottle.
 
WillVT said:
...

This is the process of the water we drink now, which is free with a food Co-op membership. It is actually more extensive than I thought. As I mentioned earlier, I like to add trace minerals back in, both for taste and health reasons.

....
Click to expand...

You get the RO filtered water from your co-op, then add minerals back in yourself as a separate process? How and which minerals?
 
Pioneered said:
I drink any dadburn water that I can handle the smell of, tap, bottled, etc.
I don't see where it maters really, if the plastic is small enough to pass then hey, I'm okay with that.
Of course if they weren't I reckon I could certainly at least see them floating around in the bottle.
Click to expand...

While the purpose of the study was not to investigate health affects associated with ingesting plastics, The AFP article did include the comments below:



Experts cautioned that the extent of the risk to human health posed by such contamination remains unclear.

"There are connections to increases in certain kinds of cancer to lower sperm count to increases in conditions like ADHD and autism," said Mason.

"We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies."
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom