We are all guilty of drinking bottled water, but many of us don’t even know that it’s something we should feel bad about. In fact, drinking water from a bottle has almost become a way of life. People often don’t trust tap water because they think it isn’t as safe as bottled water. Some people won’t drink water from the tap because they don’t like how it tastes.
There isn’t much truth to the idea that people don’t like tap water. But as per the Safe Water Drinking Act, almost all tap water in public places is safe to drink and tastes great. Still, a cold-water bottle is sometimes just too tempting to pass up. But it turns out there are many good reasons not to give in and many more reasons to consider not buying bottled water.
1 Bottled water can sometimes be contaminated
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How is it possible for a sealed bottle of water to get contaminated? Isn’t water sold in plastic bottles safe for drinking? There have been reports of more than one hundred cases of bottled water being recalled. Algae, bacteria, and chlorine are a few major water pollutants that usually contaminate bottled water. Things like glass fragments and mold were identified in bottled water in Texas in 1994.
Bottled water sold within a single state cannot be regulated by the FDA, even though the FDA does have some standards. Yet you have to search for the truth extensively if you want to know whether the bottled water you’re buying is safe or not. Compared to bottled water, typical city water is better regulated.
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2 Chemicals seep out of plastic bottles
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You may have noticed that when you leave a plastic water bottle out in the sun, it gets softer. If there is enough heat, the plastic can melt all the way. Also, bottled water can sometimes taste a little bit like plastic, which is not coincidental. In fact, chemicals in plastic products can leak into the contents and make them unsafe to drink.
BPA, an industrial chemical found in plastics that acts as a hormone and can change how a baby’s brain grows and develops, is the main cause of chemicals leaking into the water. Even plastics that say they don’t contain BPA often test positive for other harmful chemicals.
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3 Bottled water may not be as safe as water from the tap
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Tap water has to meet a lot of rules, but bottled water doesn’t have to. Since they aren’t regulated, they can be less safe and more likely to have harmful things in them than water from the tap. People think bottled water is “pure,” but this is an illusion. Actually, you don’t know how well the water was purified.
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4 Bottled water is expensive to buy
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Even though tap water isn’t technically free, it’s pretty close, especially when compared to how much bottled water costs. Look at it this way: every month, no matter what, you have to pay your water bill. If you drink tap water, it only adds a small amount to your bill. It costs a lot more to buy water in a bottle.
Food & Water Watch says that the price of a gallon of bottled water can range from 89 cents to $8.26. A gallon of tap water, on the other hand, costs less than a penny. This means that bottled water costs thousand times as much as tap water. So why pay for something that you can get for almost nothing?
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