" Water in plastic ? what are we really drinking ?

Message in a Bottle Cool

The water that comes out of most city taps in Canada is pretty clean. Yet many people prefer to spend money on bottled water, believing that it is somehow safer. Now we’re learning that the stuff in plastic water bottles may be more harmful than anything in our tap water. Bisphenol A is just one chemical that’s been in the news – and in many plastic bottles – recently. This compound mimics estrogens (human female hormones) and has been linked to breast and ovarian cancers and childhood developmental problems. It is found in clear, hard polycarbonate plastic commonly used in household and commercial water coolers and some reusable bottles, and it’s just one potentially harmful substance associated with plastic containers.

The presence of chemicals isn’t the only reason we should try to wean ourselves from the bottle, though. For one thing, bottled water is expensive, costing more than a comparable amount of gasoline. Unlike most nations on Earth, Canada has vast quantities of fresh water. Have we so polluted our water that we feel compelled to pay a lot for it? And from beginning to end (and for plastics, that end is a long time away), plastic bottles contribute to environmental problems. To start, the manufacturing process is a factor in global warming and depletion of energy resources. It takes close to 17 million barrels of oil to produce the 30 billion water bottles that U.S. citizens go through every year. Or, as the National Geographic website illustrates it: "Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle." It also takes more water to produce a bottle than the bottle itself will hold. Canadians consume more than two billion litres of bottled water a year, and globally, we consume about 190 billion litres a year. Unfortunately, most of those bottles – more than 85 per cent, in fact – get tossed into the trash rather than the recycling bin.

The pollution from plastics affects our air, land, and water. Many plastic bottles end up in landfills or get incinerated, and burning plastic releases toxic chemicals into the air. Plastic that stays on land or that is buried can take hundreds of years to break down, and even then, it doesn’t completely biodegrade.

One of the most disturbing things is what happens to plastic that ends up in the oceans – which is about 10 per cent of all plastic produced, according to Greenpeace. About 900 kilometres off the coast of California, a massive, expanding island of plastic debris 30 metres deep and bigger than the province of Quebec swirls in what is known as the North Pacific Gyre. In a recent column for CBC’s website, writer Heather Mallick described it as "a hideous chyme stretching and pulsing in the sea like an underwater gob of spiky phlegm." Plastic doesn’t biodegrade; rather, it photodegrades, which means that, under sunlight, it just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. The tiniest bits of plastic, called nurdles, enter the food chain when they are eaten by marine animals and birds. Nurdles also soak up toxins, adding to the poisons consumed by animals and every creature up the food chain. More than a million birds and marine animals die every year from eating plastic waste or from becoming entangled in plastics.

If the environmental damage caused by plastic bottles or the existence of potentially toxic chemicals in the bottles isn’t enough to make you avoid them, how about some reasons that hit closer to home?

First there’s the fact that many bottlers get their water from municipal supplies. Coca Cola filters and bottles water from municipal sources in Calgary and Brampton for its Dasani brand. Pepsi’s Aquafina comes mostly from Vancouver and Mississauga. That’s right: they’re taking your tap water and selling it back to you at a markup that can be as high as 3,000 times the price you pay for it through your taxes.

There’s also a danger that governments may use the growing reliance on bottled water as an excuse to avoid their responsibility to ensure we have access to safe drinking water. The federal government must address any existing concerns about drinking-water quality with enforceable standards designed to protect human health.

If you’re worried about chlorine in your drinking water, put it in a pitcher and let it stand overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate – or consider buying a carbon activated filter for your tap. To carry water with you, fill up your stainless steel or glass bottle from the tap, and enjoy. Water is a precious resource that belongs to all of us. Let’s not take it for granted. And let’s not put it in plastic.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

"Plastic makes it possible." Sad

I've heard on a show that bottled water has no minerals, and good things our bodies needs. Tap water is much healthier than bottled water. Just another reason not to buy it. As for the toxin in the hard bottles, like Nalgene and Lexan bottles it's called PBA. You shouldn't have to worry about it, because it only affects infants and children. Besides you've probably put worse chemicals in you already and don't even know it. Shocked

As far as the plastic goes I don't think it's good either. We add to the garbage pile, and they can only be recycled so many times before you can't use the plastic anymore so it's definitely not an extremely renewable resource. One reason I don't like plastic is because it's on everything even if it doesn't need to be. All of our food is covered in it, our cars are made of it. Many of the things we use are plastic. The only problem with not using plastic is the price of the alternatives. With the rising population in the world resources are not endless. Anyway it should be used for some things, just not everything. Confused

_________________

Dave THANK YOU! for enlightening the people (well us lol).

I hate it when people walk around with their cheap plastic bottles drinking the water as if it was harvested from a magical spring in the middle of a mountain top.

You pretty much coverd it all. Cheers

P.S I really like this section "Going Green" I have not contributed yet because I am writing a big piece to add all at once since I started a company about this stuff

_________________
"There dosen't look like there's much shelter over in those mountains, but that's the only choice I got right now, this is gonna be a long week" - Les Stroud Arctic

I use a water filter. Tap water tastes better anyway. Very Happy

_________________
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. - Psalms 53:1

	flashlightfreak9 wrote:
	I use a water filter. Tap water tastes better anyway.

I agree, bottled water has a weird flavor to it. Confused

_________________

> Good stuff Troop, post when ready Cool

Cheers <

I have a filter in the house, thats where i get my H2O from.
I have once in awhile bought bottled because i run out after a hike, and hit the store.
As well, Gatorade.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

I have a filter pitcher. I am slowly cutting down on bottle water.but after reading your posts I will think about the oil and the earth and try very hard not to get bottled water. Very Happy

_________________
I just heard something big crackï¿½.. holy crap!-Les Stroud

better to fail at something you love then to succeed in something you hate.

Oh and I forgot to add, the water I drink is well water from my lot. We tested it and it is extremely clean so its good. Tastes good too Smile

_________________
"There dosen't look like there's much shelter over in those mountains, but that's the only choice I got right now, this is gonna be a long week" - Les Stroud Arctic

I hear you guys. I was concerned when Les boiled the water in the plastic bottle. Who knows what kind of deiseses he unleashed.

_________________
Take only memories, Leave only footprints.

	Colt wrote:
	I hear you guys. I was concerned when Les boiled the water in the plastic bottle. Who knows what kind of deiseses he unleashed.

Good point I never though about that, that must have been bad. Confused

_________________
"There dosen't look like there's much shelter over in those mountains, but that's the only choice I got right now, this is gonna be a long week" - Les Stroud Arctic

We have well water and I love it, I don't like city water. I always have a nalgene water bottle with me so there is no need for other plastic bottles.

_________________
-Thou may'st break, but shalt not bend me.

-Idleness brings want
To work today is to eat tomorrow
It is best to prepare for the days of necessity

-Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day.

I wish we had a well here to get water from, I have a creek in my back yard but the water isnt the best quality, I have been considering making a boiling apparatus, to take water from the creek distill it into drinking water, but an efficient fuel source for the boiling is hard to come by, fire by wood is the cheapest, but to keep one going would take a lot of work on our part.

_________________
We only have one Earth, take care of her and she will take care of you. ~ probably someone else

The argument about bispenol A is weak for bottled water. Bisphenol A is only present in a few types of plastic, namely Polycarbonate. Yes, that's right....nalgene bottles and probably any hard plastic cups in your kitchen...check the bottom...there's almost always the type of plastic listed. But then again, people drink wine out of leaded crystal and don't die but they don't store it in the crystal. I don't see a problem with using nalgenes, just don't store your water in them all the time...for a camping trip, fine...a few days won't kill you. The cheap flimsy water bottles are almost always polyethylene terephthalate, which is also used to make soda bottles and contain no bisphenol A. Both are entirely made from petrochemicals, and the reusability of nalgenes despite their greater quantity of plastic makes them more green so to speak. Actually, the flimsy waterbottles hold up pretty damn well to reuse and I do reuse them for quite a while before recycling them. I try to avoid bottled water at all though.

But yes, the repackaging and shipping of tap water from places that happen to have good tasting tap water is common practice. Buy a filter and use that to make your tap water taste better.

Water has trace minerals present in it. Virtually no part of your daily requirements can be filled by it unless you like drinking very hard water, so don't bother with that argument. Food delivers 99.99% of the minerals you need.

As for synthetic estrogens, they're everywhere. Phthalate esters used to make any kind of soft vinyl product are synthetic estrogens. Even "natural" products like lavender oil behave like estrogens in the human body. Bisphenol A is far from being the only culprit.

^Interesting stuff. Cool

I love my tap water. Very Happy

_________________
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. - Psalms 53:1