The Real Truth About Bottled Water, Purified Water and Tap Water

There has been substantial information and misinformation about bottled water and its value and beneficial effects. Many people and organizations have joined the argument and the pros and cons have been widely discussed. As a result there has been a significant amount of disinformation distributed and discussed.

In any event, bottled water is a multi billion dollar business and is hugely popular. And, the demand for bottled alternatives keeps increasing as the population at large adopts a healthier life style.

It is best to begin with a technical definition of "Purity". Purity is often represented numerically by "Total Dissolved Solids", or "TDS", which measures the concentration of soluble impurities . TDS is measured in terms of parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter (mg/l). The EPA stipulates that tap water should have no more than 500 ppm of impurities (of all kinds) . Why is this level not 0 ppm?

Types of Water

There are two types consumed in the United States today: Municipal (also know as tap water) and bottled (including spring , filtered and purified water. The conclusion of this article is this: ALL TAP AND MOST BOTTLED WATER IS UNHEALTHY. Purified water is the only one that is truly safe to drink.

Here is the proof:

Tap Water - Tap is water provided by municipalities to a large portion of the population and most people are familiar with those types.

In the Northern Virginia - Washington Region, almost all tap water comes from surface sources like the Potomac and the Occoquan Reservoir, which is fed by the Occoquan River, both of which are polluted. The source supply is processed using basic filtration techniques like sand filtration (filters out large chucks of waste and other organic materials ), flocculation (chemicals added to get smaller particles to coagulate and float so they can be removed) and finally, chlorine is added to kill bacteria and micro-organisms.

In most cases, tap is considered potable (drinkable) according to EPA standards. The use of chlorine is widespread and most people object to the smell and taste of the water when chlorine is present.

Just Exactly What Are EPA Standards?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the regulatory body responsible for setting standards of quality of tap water. The EPA does not ensure purity , only that the water meets standards (meaning pollutants and harmful substances are allowed). Most municipalities issue yearly glowing reports about meeting EPA Standards but these standards are arbitrary, not supported by scientific testing and actually are an easy way for municipalities to produce unhealthy drinking water.

An example of the fallacy of EPA Standards is reflected in recent legislation proposed by Senator Hillary Clinton (D. NY) and others that would force the EPA to revise standards to protect New Yorkers against TCE, a carcinogenic chemical blamed for pollution of Long Island water. Senator Clinton concluded that regarding the EPA: "It is unacceptable that the EPA has failed to protect the public from TCE in the face of stronger scientific evidence that it causes cancer, and growing exposure problems in New York and across the country...As a result of EPA delays, communities across New York continue to be exposed to potentially toxic levels of TCE." The conclusion that one can draw from this legislation is that EPA protection of our drinking water is doubtful at best.

Standards allow certain "minimums" of harmful chemicals and contaminants in tap water. What is the difference between a little poison absorbed in your body continuously or a lot of poison absorbed in a short time? It can be argued that both are detrimental to your health.

Many other questions arise about tap as well. How much poison can the human body take and how did the EPA determine how much contamination is allowable and safe? What test protocols did the EPA use and how was testing conducted? What about people with challenged immune systems?

These questions and many more remain unanswered.

Is Municipal (Tap) Really Safe?

Glowing municipal reports notwithstanding, tap water can be harmful to your health for a number of reasons:

· Chlorine is not particularly good for your body - it has been linked to a variety of cancers - but it does kill some microorganisms that can make you violently ill.

· A recent study by the Associated Press revealed that pharmaceuticals are present in a large number of municipal supplies across the nation. Some municipalities do not test for pharmaceuticals or do not release the results of tests.

· There is a problem with heavy metals in municipal systems. Highly toxic metals like lead (particularly harmful to young children) and copper are found in many municipal systems because of the pipes used in homes and these heavy metals enter the water after it leaves the filtration plant. Washington. D.C. for example has been cited for excessive amounts of lead in the municipal supply.

· A recent outbreak of Salmonella poisoning in Colorado was traced to contamination of the municipal supply.

· Micro-organisms like cryptosporidium has been found in and tested for in many municipal supplies and an outbreak of the disease caused by cryptosporidium in Wisconsin was traced to contaminated municipal supplies.

· Many municipalities include fluoridation and the long term effects of fluoride is a controversial subject. Fluoride is a chemical that hardens teeth and prevents tooth decay but the best application of fluoride is in the dentist's office - not in the public drinking water supply.

The TDS of Washington , DC tap water ranges from 200 ppm to 400+ ppm and the range depends on many factors including the temperature of the river, the flow of the river, runoff, time of year (fertilizing lawns, etc.) and many others. So, the tap supply is constantly changing in quality - a fact that most people never know and municipal suppliers never reveal.

In terms of health, tap water adds little value besides low cost.

Bottled Water

Most bottled water is no safer than tap water and a good deal more expensive. Types of Bottled products are Spring , filtered and purified water with purified being the highest quality.

Spring Water

Spring water is the subject of marketing spin and many popular misconceptions. Many of those misconceptions are promoted through less than accurate advertising pitches.

Many people for example believe that spring water is actually "pure". On the contrary, spring waters contain many of the same impurities found in drilled wells or even tap water.

A fact about spring water is that it is highly affected by ground water pollution from animals and industrial waste runoff.

But is spring water "100% pure" as many spring water companies advertise? The fact is that the "100% pure" refers not to the absence of impurities in the water, but to the source of the water itself. That is, 100% of the water in the bottle came from an underground source (i.e. a spring), rather than from surface water. These cleverly worded phrases may be legally permissible, but many people find them to be misleading and unethical.

And contamination of springs that furnish the water is more common than not. Ground water contamination from animal waste can affect spring water and industrial pollutants like benzene, perchlorinate and MTBE are commonly found in Spring Water. Benzene is a carcinogen by product of oil refining, perchlorinate is used in rocket fuel and is highly toxic even in small amounts and MTBE is used in gasoline to improve performance and leaches into the water supply form abandoned underground fuel tanks.

In 2004 The E.I. DuPont Co, was assessed over $300 million in fines and penalties for the release of Teflon related chemicals in the Ohio River thus causing pollution of nearby springs and wells. The penalty included a requirement for the supply of large amounts of bottled drinking water.

Spring water advertising is all about images - images of the mountains, streams and wildlife. Reality is quite different.

Spring water is usually not bottled at the source but is usually chlorinated and trucked to the bottling plant. At this point it is basically the same as chlorinated tap water and contaminants remain because the filtration process only filters and doesn't purify.

Filtered Water

This is a product that is mass marketed at retail outlets. Typically, the source of the water is municipal tap water. That water is then run through carbon filters to remove the chlorine odor and taste before being bottled.

It's basically tap water without the chlorine. In terms of quality, it's really not much different than many spring waters. It comes from a "natural" source, goes through minimal filtration, and is then bottled and shipped to market.

Purified Water

Purified water represents the fastest growing segment of the bottled water industry mainly because it's purer than other types of waters. There is a definite health trend today toward healthy living and many health conscious consumers buy because they want something that's of a higher quality and purity than other options like tap water.

To meet the legal definition of "purified water", impurities must be removed to meet the U.S. Pharmacopeia definition (99.9% pure) adopted by the Food and Drug Administration.

The water must be tested and the results made available to the public. Any reputable purified bottled supplier will produce testing reports upon request. The most effective process for purification is a steam distillation/oxygenation process that creates pure, good tasting water.

Purified water is often confused with filtered water. While both types are subject to some sort of filtration (as is almost every spring water), purified water is purified through additional purification processes, typically, distillation. The resultant product, "purified" water, is of significantly higher purity than either spring , tap or filtered water.

Consider the Product not the Source

Purified water may originate from either a spring or surface or groundwater source or directly from the tap. The source of the water doesn't matter-it is the purification process that counts. Since, the purification process is designed to remove virtually all types of impurities; the quality of the source water has little or no impact on the quality of the final purified product.

The steam distillation process of purification will consistently produce extremely high purity water, regardless of fluctuations in the source water's quality. This is not true of spring , tap or filtered water. For this reason, purified water is viewed as the standard against which the purity of other waters is judged.

If you're buying water for higher quality and higher purity reasons, then purified water is your best choice. Tap and most bottled water are the products of hype and spinning of the facts. Investigate before you drink.

Jon M. Stout is Chairman of the Board of Element H2O. For more information about bottled water, purified drinking water and bottled water delivery [http://www.elementh2o.com/local] go to http://www.elementh2o.com

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Water And Your Health - Debunking The 12 Common Myths About Water! Part 2 Of 2

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed why water is so important to our health as well as debunked the first two myths of water. In this follow-up article, we focus on the next 10 myths of water we were brought up with.

Myth No 3 - When in doubt, buy bottled water!

Despite the high standard of production of almost everything in many developed countries, it is interesting to note that few developed countries have a standard for bottled water. In the US and Europe, bottled water have been found to be actually tap water and some contains cancer causing agents. Do a search using the keywords, "Cancer bottled water" in Google and you will see amazing reports of bottled water which contains high level of cancer causing agents. So the US and Europe are two of the most developed regions in the world and yet they do not have a standard for bottled water. If you, like me are living in Asia, can you imagine where most of our bottled water is coming from? Countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Can you imagine what kind of manufacturing standards these countries will have for their water?

Myth No 4 - Drink when you are thirsty!

There is an old saying that goes,"Listen to your body!". Others like "Eat when you are hungry", "Sleep when you are sleepy" seems to hold true, so does "Drink when you are thirsty" applies? Well, the correct answer here is a firm, "No". You see, water is much like oxygen or fuel for your car. You don't breathe only when you need oxygen. You don't top up your car only when it has run out of fuel? Your body needs to be hydrated all the time. The moment it is a little bit short of water, the body goes into a conservation mode. It uses less and the body becomes less efficient. Your blood thickens, your kidney becomes less effective and your whole body functions at less than 100%. Some symptoms of insufficient water do not even manifest themselves as thirst. For example, many times when you have a headache, it is a sign of de-hydration, but you do not feel thirsty. So, Water should be drunk on a regular basis instead only when you feel thirsty!

Myth No 5 - Too much water makes your body retain water and makes you fat!

As mentioned in Myth No 4, your body has a self regulating mechanism. When your body does not have enough water, it goes into conservation mode. Your body actually retains water. So the more water you drink, the less it retains!

Myth No 6 - Chlorinated water is clean water

While chlorine has been known to kill many germs and bacteria, chlorine itself is a poison. In fact, chlorine is a bleaching agent and that is why many swimmers have bleached hair when they swim in a pool daily. Laboratory test have shown strong associations between drinking chlorinated water and many forms of rectal, colon and bladder cancer. Chlorine is also a gas and not easily removed by boiling. In fact, laboratory tests have also shown that water needs to be boiled for at least 40mins before they can be removed.

Myth No 7 - Boiling water is good as it kills bacteria and germs

Boiling Water does kill many forms of Germs and Bacteria. However, boiling chlorinated water and water with impurities and in-organic substances in it can change the chemical composition of these substances causing some of them to become carcinogenic. The human body is also known to absorb a lot of oxygen from the fluids it take in and boiling water actually drives out a good amount of oxygen from the water. While this itself is not harmful as we do breathe in substantial amount of oxygen in our normal process of inhalation, why drive out something that is good? Cool water (room temperature) is also absorbed better and faster by the body than warm water.

Myth No 8 - Ice cold Beer is a great thirst quencher!

Beer contains alcohol and while an ice-cold beer will certainly feel good on a hot day and after some heavy activity, alcohol actually draws fluid out from the blood streams via a process called osmosis.

Myth No 9 - There is no difference between Aerated Water and Still Water other than the fact that it is Aerated!

In Myth No 7, we discussed about boiling water and driving oxygen out of water. Aerated water is even worse than that. Aerated water is actually water filled with Carbon Dioxide. Most of us know that Carbon Dioxide is what our body expels when we exhale. CO2 are considered to be "Toxins" and not usable by the body. Why in the world would we want to put these back into the body?

Myth No 10 - Wine contains anti-oxidant and is good for you

While it is true that wine contains anti-oxidant and anti-oxidant is generally good for you, it does not necessarily mean that Wine is good for you. Like all things, too much of a good thing can be bad. This "excuse" was probably coined up by wine lovers as a justification to drink more! If the Anti-Oxidants in wine is good for you, why not go to the source and eat grapes instead?

Myth No 11 - I filter my water with one of those portable filters, so it must be clean enough!

Not all filters are made equal. In fact, if you have a filter that is portable, it probably is not good enough. The other tell-tale sign that your filter is not good enough is when Water flows through it easily. A good filter has to filter out particles as small as 0.0001 micron and the only filter that can do this in the world is a filter utilizing a process call Reverse Osmosis. The filter pores are so small that water will not flow through without some force pushing it across. Reverse Osmosis uses a pump to "push" the water against a membrane so that it flows through it leaving the impurities behind. The pores are so small that even bacteria and germs will not go through it.

If you cannot find a good RO filter, the other option is to use a water distiller. Nature has its own way of distillation via evaporation and rainfall. However, in today's industrialised world, the air is so polluted that when the rain falls back to earth, it would have absorbed back a good amount of impurities; hence the term "acid rain". Distillation is a slow process but it produces some of the cleanest water around, on par with those of Reverse Osmosis.

Myth No 12 - Alkaline Water is best for the body!

This myth must have been developed from the Alkaline Diet concept which is highly popular. While it is true that our body should be maintained in a slightly alkaline state to be healthy, it does not necessarily mean that all foods which are alkaline are good! Also some acidic food does leave behind an "alkaline ash" that is beneficial for the body eg lemon and lime.

There are also two major parts of our body that must remain acidic for us to be healthy. One is the skin and the other is the stomach. The stomach has acidic digestive juices which help in breaking down food and digestion. Drinking too much water during food intake actually dilutes the digestive juices and lessen the effectiveness of the digestive process. Drinking alkaline water not only dilutes the digestive acides, it neutralises them as well. For this reason, pure water should have a neutral pH of 7 and it was always recommended to drink water at least half and hour before a meal rather than during a meal. Drinking water half an hour before eating has several advantages. It keeps your stomach full so you do not over-eat. It also does not dilute the digestive juices as much as drinking while eating does.

Can you over drink? I've read a few cases of it. Overdosage of water is called Hyponatremia and can cause complications although this is rare. Water can flush out toxins from the body but when you overdo it, it can also flush out useful minerals. However, unless you go on long durations of water fasting, this should not be a major concern.

So there you go, 12 myths of water and hydration that we hear all the time. How much water do we need? The rule of thumb is that an average person needs about eight 8oz glasses of water per day. For every 25 pounds overweight, an extra glass will have to be added. The above recommendation is only for a normal lifestyle. However, if you are active and into sports, you'll need to drink a lot more. Let's drink to our health!

C.H. Seet is the author of the blog, Ezinspirations (http://www.ezinspirations.com/blog). He has a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration and has a successful career spanning more than 2 decades. C.H. started as a Sales Engineer in Hewlett Packard and then moved on to become Product Marketing Manager in Rockwell Automation. He now heads a German Multi-National Company, located in Singapore and overlooks the whole SE Asian region.

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