The next time someone offers you a bottle of water, take a stand and say something clever like, “No thank you, I don’t believe in it.” This simple move will open up a conversation about the massive swindle that is bottled water ,and possibly persuade one more person to give it up entirely.
Even beyond the issues of your health and the environment, bottled water represents a novel form of privatization, in which private corporations have succeeded at making water a commodity. Private corporations should have no more control over the selling of water than they do the selling of our air supplies. Well, this is already occurring to some extent as corporations make a profit selling water — which at times even makes water less available to the people living in the area. Even public water supplies are being increasingly taken over by private corporations, and in some areas of the world are up for grabs by the highest bidder. This has been publicized in countries such as Bolivia, where residents battled police and the military to protect their water rights from the US-based Bechtel Corporation, but water privatization initiatives are being pushed all over the world, including in the United States.
If you’re interested in learning more, an excellent, eye-opening film on this topic is Thirst.
Getting back to bottled water, however, many, many Americans still drink it, believing it is somehow healthier than tap water. In 2008, U.S. bottled water consumption reached nearly 9 billion gallons, raking in revenues of more than $11 billion.
Are You Paying 1,900 Times More for Unhealthy, Earth-Damaging Water?
If you drink bottled water, yes, you are! Bottled water typically costs more than $1.50 per bottle, which is 1,900 times the price of tap water.Yet, that very same bottled water that you’re paying a premium for is, in about 40 percent of cases, simply bottled tap water, which may or may not have received any additional treatment.
On top of that, most municipal tap water must actually adhere to more strict purity standards than the bottled water industry. Further, while the EPA requires large public water supplies to test for contaminants as often as several times a day, the FDA requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year, or once every four years, depending on the contaminant. An independent test performed by the Environmental Working Group revealed 38 low-level contaminants in bottled water, with each of the 10 tested brands containing an average of eight chemicals including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic, and bacteria. When you factor in other elements, like the chemicals that each from the plastic bottle and its impact on the environment, bottled water becomes a losing proposition no matter how you look at it.
Drinking From Plastic Bottles is Not a Wise Health Move
When drinking bottled water you need to think not only about the water but also about the bottle itself. Plastic is not an inert substance as its manufacturers would like you to believe. It contains chemicals like BPA and phthalates, which mimic hormones in your body. Even tiny concentrations can cause problems such as:
• Structural damage to your brain
• Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning
• Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
• Altered immune function
• Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, and ovarian dysfunction
• Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior
• Stimulation of prostate cancer cells
• Increased prostate size, and decreased sperm production
Anytime you drink from a plastic bottle you risk exposure, but if you leave your bottle of water in a hot car or reuse it, your exposure is magnified because heat and stress increase the amount of chemicals that leach out of the plastic.
About 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to manufacture water bottles each year around the world, and the processing itself releases toxic compounds like nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. Further, according to the Sierra Club, the U.S. alone uses 1.5 million barrels of oil to make plastic water bottles, the majority of which then end up in landfills. In fact, 1,500 water bottles are thrown away every second! This massive waste is one reason why there is now a plastic “stew” twice the size of Texas swirling through the Pacific Ocean. Also extremely harmful to the environment is the way corporations are pumping water from underground aquifers. These natural springs serve as water sources for nearby streams, wells and farms, but the aggressive pumping can easily dry them out prematurely.
A Simple Solution is at Your Disposal
One you realize that many sources of bottled water is:
• No safer than tap water
• Extremely expensive
• Often contaminated by plastics chemicals
• Contributing to massive environmental harm
The choice to stop using bottled water becomes simple. Fortunately, the alternative to having pure water is also simple: filter your own at home.
What is the BEST Water in the World? There is no question in my mind that the absolute finest source of water in the world is NOT from an artesian well but from a gravity fed mountain spring that is obtained directly from where it has come out of the earth. It is filtered by the earth and structured and it is also not pasteurized or heated like nearly all commercial bottled waters. You see there are living organisms in water like algae that are actually beneficial for us but when you heat the water, just like pasteurizing milk, you damage it. So you are probably wondering the best way to find a gravity fed raw spring. Well fortunately there is a web site called Find a Spring.com which allows you to do so. The website also allows you to add a spring that is not currently in the database. You can include information about the spring’s temperature and location, and insert pictures or videos you took of the spring. Relax if you don’t live near a mountain though as just about any spring is better than all other available options. So if you are at sea level just use that local spring. Typically they are monitored by the local municipalities for contaminants. Most of these springs are FREE, that is right, the best water in the world and there is NO CHARGE for it. You can easily store ten five gallon jugs in most cars and it is a wonderful opportunity for you to regularly escape from the city get out in nature. If you don’t have the large water bottles you can easily find them online. Glass would be best but if you use those, it would be better to get the three gallon jars as the five gallon ones are too large and can easily break and you can hurt yourself. You can also find corks to stop the bottles at most hardware stores. Just bring the bottle in with you so it fits properly. If you do choose glass just make sure you wrap the bottles in your car with some blankets or towels so they don’t bang against each other and break. In my mind getting fresh raw spring water is one of the more powerful, inexpensive and phenomenal lifestyle adjustments you can make and I would strongly encourage you to try it.
Article obtain from www.mercola.com Edited by Dr. Mila McManus