Is Bottled Water Better Than Tap Water?

As more studies come to light that bring the long-term safety of tap water into question, many people find themselves wondering if bottled water is the better choice for consumption, cooking, tooth brushing and more. When the facts about bottled water and tap water are presented, many people make the decision to go bottled. While tap water can and often is technically safe according to government standards, the trace substances found within can be of grave concern.
Concerns About Tap Water

The safety of tap water has long been a major concern for government agencies and the general public, as well. The potential pollutants that can find their way into the public water supply are quite extensive.

The US Environmental Protection Agency requires public water suppliers to test for more than 90 different types of contaminants. Despite the rigorous testing procedures that are in place in most jurisdictions, many public water supplies fail - in some cases, multiple times.

The Hillsborough County Water Department, since renamed Water Resource Services, suffered from multiple system failures in the early 2000s. This seemingly well regulated water supplier, serving the Tampa Bay area, suffered from repeated coliform contaminations and even an e. coli scare. This system is not alone in its failure to meet federal regulations despite the use of chloramines and other chemicals that are designed to remove potential hazards from potable water.

While the EPA does require extensive testing and requires each public water supplier to provide full disclosure in the form of an annual report to water users, government regulations do not cover every eventuality. This was made quite evident thanks to a recent Associated Press study that revealed the presence of pharmaceuticals in the public water supply in jurisdictions all over the United States. The investigation turned up evidence that shows some 41 million Americans might be impacted by medications found within their water.

The five-month study focused on water systems throughout the United States and found contamination - including antibiotics, anticonvulsants and more - in some 24 different metro areas. While the medications were found in trace amounts, the long-term impacts of consuming the water are unclear, the AP reported.

The medications themselves are thought to enter into the public water supplies via natural human elimination. Toilet water, which would contain traces of medication, is flushed and sent to wastewater treatment facilities. From here, treated wastewater is released back into the environment. Eventually, that same water ends up back in rivers, reservoirs, lakes and aquifers, which are the sources of public drinking water.

While the public water supply is well regulated and the water does undergo a great deal of treatment, systems are subject to failure. The long-term impacts of such failures remain unclear.

The Bottled Water Difference

Bottled water offers a distinct difference over tap water in a number of cases. While it's true that some bottled waters do come from the public water supply, many factors can make it distinctly unique and even a great deal safer.

According to the International Bottled Water Association, there are a number of things that make bottled water the better choice. Even in regard to the trace medicines found in tap water, Dr. Stephen Edberg of Yale's School of Medicine says that bottled water undergoes processes that are quite effective in protecting against the substances the AP reported finding in tap water.

Some of the measures that can help make bottled water stand out above tap include:

    Regulations - Just like tap water, bottled water is regulated by government agencies. While tap is overseen by the EPA, bottled water is regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration. This organization requires that bottled water manufacturers adhere to the FDA's inspection, labeling, safety and quality requirements.


    Extra treatment - Most bottled water products undergo further treatments beyond what the public water supply is subjected to. Treatment can include reverse osmosis, filtration, distillation and more, depending on the particular supplier and the type of water in question.


    Labeling laws - Companies that do not choose to further treat their bottled water beyond what public water suppliers perform are required by the FDA to clearly say so in their labels.


    IBWA standards - Companies that belong to the International Bottled Water Association must adhere to strict standards that go beyond what the federal government requires. Members are subjected to plant inspections once a year that help insure that standards are being met.

While bottled water can start out the same as tap, it often undergoes further treatment that is designed to make it the safer choice.

Purified Is Often The Best

If concerns about contaminants in the public water supply are high, purified bottled water is often one of the best choices to make for drinking and more. This type of bottled water is more heavily treated. The distillation process that is required to create distilled oxygenated water, for example, is designed to remove impurities and create a cleaner, safer source of drinking water.

Answering the question of which is better bottled or tap often comes down to personal choice in regard to taste. If cleaner, safer water is desired, however, the facts about bottled make the answer quite clear. Thanks to the extra treatments many bottled waters are subjected to, this option stands out against the competition.

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Why is Bottled Drinking Water So Popular?

Despite a dedicated campaign by many municipal water companies and associations to marginalize bottled water in the eyes of the American consumer, exactly the opposite has happened - bottled water is more popular than ever and continues to grow in popularity.

Perhaps this is because the American consumer is truly an educated consumer and for years they have been misled about the purity of municipal tap water that is laced with contaminants and harmful chemicals and tainted with chlorine and other additives that impart nauseating odors and taste.

Bottled,one of the most popular features of bottled water is that it does not require heavy doses of chlorine and so its taste is definitely more appealing than tap water, And, if one reads the purity reports issued by municipal water suppliers and required by the Environmental Protection Agency, it becomes evident that municipal water suppliers do not have the technology to purify large scale consumption of water.

One should read the reports carefully and note the warnings about cryptosporidium, rocket fuel, people with compromised immune systems or chronic illnesses and gasoline additives that remain in municipal water even after treatment and chlorination.

Bottled drinking water also contains no caffeine, no calories and no sugar and thereby competes with carbonated soft drinks that themselves are unhealthy in a world seeking higher health standards.

Water in bottles may seem like a relatively new idea - one born during the heightened awareness of fitness and potential water pollution during the last two or three decades but it traces its roots to the 19th century in America. The water is also be used as an ingredient in beverages, such as diluted juices or flavored bottled waters.

Water that has been treated by distillation, reverse osmosis, or other suitable processes and that meets the definition of "purified water" is the best bottled water and studies show it.

Water cannot be called purified "unless it is 99.9% free of any and all contaminants - a test that all municipal water and most bottled waters fail to meet.

Bottled drinking water has a valid place in the marketplace, so unless one is willing to give up all bottled beverages it seems a little hypocritical to single out water. It is so ubiquitous that people can hardly ask for water anywhere without being handed a bottle.

Water in bottles is the fastest-growing segment of the beverage industry, and the product has now passed both coffee and milk to become the second-most-consumed beverage. Water in bottles that crosses state lines is considered a food product and is overseen by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which does mandate that it be bottled in sanitary conditions using food-grade equipment.

Tap Water

Once, most Americans got their water only from the tap. Pioneers trekking west across the United States during the 19th century also typically considered drinkable (potable) water a staple to be purchased in anticipation of the long trip across the arid West. But, as the population grew, industrial, natural and organic pollutants fouled the source of natural drinking water found in rivers, streams and aquifers. Development of purification techniques were unable to keep up with population and pollution growth and municipal water purity disappeared.

The municipalities attempted to cover up the problem through the addition of copious amounts of chlorine and the establishment of "standards" by the EPA that allowed dangerous chemicals capable of long term damage to the human body to remain. And, the EPA testing stopped at the water treatment plant and did not consider the presence of lead, copper and other poisonous elements contained in the water pipes of houses that used tap water.

Because lead can leach from pipes as water travels from water utilities to home faucets, the EPA set an action level of 15 parts per billion (ppb) in tap water. This means that when lead levels are above 15 ppb in tap water that reaches home faucets, water utilities must treat the water to reduce the lead levels to below 15 ppb. Lead is particularly injurious to children at any level,bottled..

Many municipalities provide water that's discolored, chlorinated, and tastes like "pool" water. So if your tap water tastes poorly, it might be that your city's water system is severely under funded or is controlled by a corporation, not the same corporation that makes your bottled water, but it is obvious they have the interest in controlling where and how you get your water.

Tap water also has trace chemicals (especially insecticides) that are one of the causes of nerve diseases such as fibromyalgia, which has no known cure. There is significant contamination that water picks up in older plumbing from the source to the tap,bottled..
Beware of Bottled Tap Water

Some bottled water suppliers merely filter and bottle tap water - contaminants and all. Filtering tap water does not totally remove chlorine. Unless the label says it comes from a specific source, when the manufacturer says 'bottled at the source,' the source could be the tap. Yet sources of bottled drinking water are just as vulnerable to surface contamination as sources of tap water.

One reason for the success of bottled water is that many claim not to like the taste of what comes out of the tap. But filtering out the taste of chlorine alone is not the answer,bottled..

Spring Water

Spring water is at best marketing hype and at worst misleading advertising.

Take for example the brand of water that is labeled "spring water" with the implication of purity that comes not from a fresh mountain spring but from deep wells in the undeniably less-picturesque Los Angeles suburbs, and one water supplier that sells water drawn from a municipal source in Corpus Christi, Texas-a far cry from the pristine glacial peaks suggested by its name and label.

 Even if the water does come from a spring, what's in that spring may be less safe than what comes out of your tap.

Bottled,if the spring is near a cattle farm, it's going to be contaminated. One brand of "spring water," which had a graphic of mountains and a lake on the label, was actually taken from a well in Massachusetts in the parking lot of an industrial facility. That brand of Massachusetts "spring water" was so-named because the source occasionally bubbled up to the surface in the industrial parking lot.

Bottled,in a civil case against one of the largest spring water companies, the plaintiffs charged that the supplier duped consumers by advertising that their brand of spring water came from "some of the most pristine and protected sources deep in the woods".

The lawsuit alleged that ever since the original spring was shut down in 1967, the company had used man-made wells, at least one of which is in a parking lot along a busy road.

Consider These Facts

To be sure, many municipal water systems have run afoul of government water quality standards - driving up demand for bottled water as a result. Americans drank 26 billion liters of bottled water in 2004, or roughly one eight-ounce glass per person every day.

Tens of millions of consumers now shun tap water and rely on bottled water exclusively. Nearly one-fifth of North Americans use bottled drinking water exclusively for their daily hydration. Canadians consume more bottled drinking water than coffee, tea, apple juice or milk,bottled..

Become an educated consumer and read the EPA reports about municipal water carefully to determine the real purity of the water. Avoid the hype and spin so often found in reports issued by government agencies,bottled..

Use municipal water to wash your car and water the lawn, but if you want to remain healthy drink purified bottled water for the highest level of purity.

Bottled water is the best.

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