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Everything you need to know about bottled water »

Posted by: sarah 2 years, 3 months ago
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Why do Americans insist on drinking bottled water? Is bottled water safer than tap water? Does it taste better? Are the "enhanced" waters healthier?

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sarah

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Comments: 12
  • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)Psyjack
    Psyjack
    July 5, 2006, 7:28 a.m.

    My son's 7th grade science project involved bottled water, tap water, and distilled water. The topic, Can people determine the difference?

    Water used:

    Evian, Dasani, Tap, Distilled, Poulan Springs (spelling?), Generic bottled.

    Results of 150 people tested randomly, knowing the hypothesis, procedure, and agreeing to answer the questionaire.

    2 people knew their bottled water

    2 people knew there were differences, but couldn't determine what the difference was

    The rest had no idea which water was which.

    Bottled water is a fad in most places, or convenient in place of soda.

    Choises of which to purchase was primarily based on marketing.

    Researching the bottled water advocate arguments; with a few exceptions, notibly health concerns in less sanitary areas (for any reason) there were no concrete scientific reasons to choose bottled water over tap.

    With modern reclamation technology, waste water plant effluent is more pure than the water pulled up from wells.

    • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)Ryan
      Ryan
      July 5, 2006, 7:32 a.m.

      Interesting facts there Psyjack. All the more amazing that they were revealed by a group of 12 and 13 year olds.

      • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)assabil
        assabil
        July 5, 2006, 7:56 a.m.

        • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)cheerstar
          cheerstar
          July 5, 2006, 10:52 a.m.

          I'm sorry Psyjack... but I don't believe what you say is true... I can taste any tap water in an instant. Distilled lacks anything... Evian has a good mellow taste, I can taste the crispness in Fiji water, The mineral qualities in Pellegrino and Voss... water really does have tastes, it's just that some people's taste buds are more sensitive to them.

          • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)Psyjack
            Psyjack
            July 5, 2006, 11:02 a.m.

            I'm just going by the results of the tests. Agree or not, that's what happened. Not only can I tell the taste of tap vs. distilled, I know some water actually feels better than others. You can tell the difference, but if you didnt know which was which, could you distinguish between different brands of bottles water? Perhaps you could.

            I don't argue against your point. You would have changed the results a bit, but for a group of 7th graders, they certianly had no way of covering the US to get a bigger sample, and had 1 day to collect the data away from school.

            Try it with the same group of kids in your area, same random sampling of people, choose the water. See what happens, it would be interesting to see results from other places.

            • Avg rating: (+3/-0 3)mr_johnwong
              mr_johnwong
              July 5, 2006, 12:40 p.m.

              I agree with cheerstar. There are differences in taste between bottled waters and tap water. Most noticeably is the chlorine content and hardness in tap water. But don't buy the hype that bottled water is safer or healthier than tap. Bottled water is just aesthetically more pleasing than tap.

              Here in California, we're regulated by the EPA and Dept. of Health Services, the agency responsible for public health.

              • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)stephend
                stephend
                July 5, 2006, 1:09 p.m.

                Any "fad" which gets people to drink more water--bottled or otherwise--is a healthy fad and doesn't need lambasting ;-)

                • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)Carl2005
                  Carl2005
                  Aug. 26, 2006, 5:01 p.m.

                  Bottled water is the best product invented in the 20th century !!! More successull than coke or pepsi..

                  Without flourides bottled water drinkers could loose their teeth faster..

                  Carl

                  http://nutrition.smatix.com

                  • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)OsmosisNerd
                    OsmosisNerd
                    June 27, 2007, 3:45 p.m.

                    A home reverse osmosis system is relatively inexpensive (you can get a small one for a few hundred dollars) and produce as much 'bottled water' quality water as you want. You would even have water left over for your pets.

                    Check out http://www.homeosmosis.com for information on how they work and small (and large) home systems.

                    Do your part to stop the waste of these bottles, and save some money in the process! Pay back time on a small system 3-6 months depending on family size.

                    • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)akai235
                      akai235
                      April 4, 2008, 12:10 p.m.

                      I didn't know that before. Really good news, thank you

                      • Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)rider402
                        rider402
                        April 7, 2008, 10:53 a.m.

                        How nice are you for posting this news. It's really helpful for me. Thanks

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