Dangers of Tap Water

Kangengulf — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 11:31:06 +0000

Safe and readily available water is a basic human necessity in order to meet health and sanitation needs. However, tap water around the world has consistently been found to be subpar, “first-world” countries not excluded.

According to the WHO (World Health Organization) some pretty astonishing facts about drinking global water are:1

Around the world, at least 1.8 billion people utilize a drinking water source contaminated with fecal matter.

Contaminated water can transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 502,000 diarrheal deaths each year.
By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.
In low and middle income countries, 38% of health care facilities lack any water source, 19% do not have improved sanitation, and 35% lack water and soap for handwashing.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs391/en/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/polluters

The Truth about the $13 billion dollar Bottled Water Industry

Kangengulf — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 11:15:03 +0000

Bottled water is bad for the environment

According to the National Geographic 1, “Bottled water is a drain on the environment: The U.S. public goes through about 50 billion water bottles a year, and most of those plastic containers are not recycled. Transporting the bottles and keeping them cold also burns fossil fuels, which give off greenhouse gases.” 1500 plastic bottles are consumed every second. Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times. And, it will take 1000 years for the plastic to degrade.

It can pose health threats

The plastic in bottled water often contains chemicals BPA and phthalates, which are proven to be hazardous to human health.3

It’s not proven to be any safer than tap water

The non-profit, non-partisan Environmental Working Group (EWG) says, “The government does not mandate that bottled water be any safer than tap water. In fact, the chemical pollution standards are nearly identical.” Historically, bottled waters have even been recalled for contamination with particulate matter, mold and bacteria.4 Further, as reported by ABC, environmental advocate Mae Wu has performed studies which show bottled is no safer or cleaner: There is actually more testing federally mandated on tap water than bottled. 100 compounds of tap water must be tested every day and the results posted online.5.

It doesn’t necessarily taste better

In this video by ABC, in a blind taste test, many even preferred the taste of tap water over bottled.