Labels on expensive bottled water may lead us to think the water inside comes from pristine springs or has amazing healing powers. But bottled water companies don't have to tell us what is in those bottles.
EWG decided to look at what they do tell us. And the story can be summed up in a few words: not much.
EWG's just-released 2011 Bottled Water Scorecard grades more than 170 bottled waters on the information they do or do not disclose on their labels and websites.
When we looked for answers to obvious questions -- Where does the water come from? Is it purified? How? Have tests found any contaminants? -- nine out of the ten best-selling brands didn't answer at least one of those questions.
Yahoo! published this investigation on their home page and Green section and already it's made a huge splash (no pun intended).
Because we know you care about what you drink, and feed your family -- we wanted to make sure you saw this important right-to-know report.
Click here to see Yahoo!'s take on the best and worst of the brands we looked at.
Sincerely,
Ken Cook
President, Environmental Working Group
11 comments:
They do not have to meet the same testing on a national level but actually the water is still real safe as those items not tested aren't a big deal sort of like the global warming scare.
Hmmmmmm...the ENVIRONMENTAL working group. Gee I wonder how skewed their "testing" is?
Here we go, another self righteous group of environmentalists advocating more government regulation. What a surprise. If you do not like the bottle of water because it does not have the contents posted on the lable do not buy it. You don't have to look far to find a plethora of new governmental regulation. Consider the new Critical Area Regulations that expand the unbuildable 100' buffer and require thousands of dollars in new tree planting requirements-to the new MDE stormwater ag-poultry regulations. To use the so called "standard plan" which has historically been the fast and easy route to regulate stormwater runoff in new construction, the poultry farmers must now dedicate 5 additional acres into a runoff dead zone for each new chicken house (total of 6 acres per house) or hire an engineer and spend many additional thousands for an engineered stormwater plan. There will not be many new chicken houses built in MD. One of these days hopefully the construction industry will be back up and running. The Eastern Shore developers will cringe when they find out the maximum daily load limits that have been placed on their land. In many cases the land will not be developable because the load limit is too small or others have built neighboring land first. So lots that were worth $50,000 each will mot be built thus reducing the fair market value greatly. I can assure you that the EPA, DNR or MDE which effectively just took the land will not want to pay the owner for it. But it's all good for the environment, right.
We just have some brilliant people awake on the shore today.
8:52 very well stated but the majority do not understand the details of what is happening in storm water or run off regs. How about doing an article on Smart growth and PFA's as that area has rolled over everyone at the end of the year.
Any report on bottled water is going to state that it is less regulated than tap water because it is. Also, if you look on many bottled water packages they list the source as a MUNICIPAL WATER PLANT! So the are charging you for what you have already paid for via taxes.
8:52 Does this buffer apply to residential or just agricultural?
I used to use tons of bottled water. Then I wised up. I got a Pur waterfilter jug that filters about a half gallon of water at a time I love it but I am sure the Brita and other brand similar products work just as well. The large container fits in the fridge and I use it to fill plastic bottles of all sizes I have saved. A $5 filter lasts a month...no plastic bottles to dump or recycle...and so,so much less than bottled water of questionable quality. The product I use removes all chlorine from city water...that alone would be worth it. Please, try this yourselves. Too much plastic out there now!
2:49 PM
Good idea.
chlorine doesn't have to be removed. It dissipates on its own if you let the pitcher of water sit for about 20 minutes. Don't take my word for it, google it. Also, the city HAS to add chlorine. Tests on water to see if specific bacteria are present can take hours or in some cases days, but the presence of chlorine means these bacteria cannot be present. So all you have to do is test for chlorine to ensure water safety. That tests takes a couple of minutes. This is why UV cannot be used by the city- it does not leave a telltale residual and therefore you'd have to test for all kinds of things to make sure the water is safe. Chlorine is the cheapest and best way to keep a local water supply safe.
During a hospital stay last summer I couldn't drink the water from their kitchen & ice machines. They probably need a deep cleaning. Anyhow the dietary dept brought me bottled water. Every other bottle had the same putrid odor and could not be drunk. I pointed this out to visitors & staff, but for naught.
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