Myths about water

[EricT]

Before anyone brings it up...I am only talking about the laws concerning bottled water. I am not trying to say how safe I think it is. I think it is safe in general but I think that tap water has a better guarantee of being safe than any one bottle of water.

[Iron]

Originally Posted by Eric3237

Before anyone brings it up...I am only talking about the laws concerning bottled water. I am not trying to say how safe I think it is. I think it is safe in general but I think that tap water has a better guarantee of being safe than any one bottle of water.

It is. I've read comparison studies that show a higher pathogen content in a lot of bottled waters compared to public water. Plus with public water you get the added benefit of floride.

It's interesting the way people think different though and are quick to point out the supposed superiority of their bottled water. Most of it is actually filtered public water anyway. Generally speaking, anything that doesn't say "source" or "spring" on the label is just fancy tap water.

Dasani is a good example...

According to Wikipedia, Coca-Cola uses water from local municipal water supplies, filters it using the process of reverse osmosis and adds trace amounts of minerals, including Magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt), Potassium chloride (a sodium-free substitute for table salt), and common salt.

And then of course, sells it for a buck or two to the "health conscious."

[Scorcher2005]

Originally Posted by Eric3237

I have seen and have been in situations where the effects of dehydration snuck up on people (including myself) before they were really aware of it.

Did you get the silver bullet?

[EricT]

Somebody brought up, I think, about a lot of bottled water being (filtered) tap water.

I was saying that bottled water in the states is regulated by the FDA but I failed to point out that this is only is it CROSSES STATE LINES. I didn't realize how large a percentage of it actually doesn't, making it exempt from regulation by the FDA...I don't know if the EPA has any jurisdiction on that or if it is strictly up to the state.

This from Cynthia Sass of the American College of Sports Medicine:

...Sass points out that an estimated 60 to 70 percent of all bottled water in the U.S. is packaged and sold within the same state, which exempts it from FDA regulation. And 1 in 5 states do not regulate that bottled water.

Moreover, tests on 1,000 bottles of 103 different brands of bottled water found man-made chemicals, bacteria and arsenic in 22 percent of the bottles.

Tap water is also not immune to contamination problems. While most cities meet the standards for tap water, some tap water in the 19 U.S. cities tested was found to contain arsenic, lead, and pesticides, Sass told the conference (11th annual Health & Fitness Summit in Dallas.).