Pointing Out The Obvious

Ever since the bottled water fad raised its expensive head (as I recall, in 1982), it's been little more than a massive scam, but one in which just about everyone was complicit. Doesn't bottled water make you feel special?

Heck, I buy massive amounts of bottled water and jeopardize my health by lugging the dense fluid up the back porch steps. When I drag myself and the bottled water into the kitchen, I can finally sit down, rest my wounded muscles, and swill the expensive drink in peace (all the while ignoring the city's own low-cost tap water pouring out of the faucet).

Now, this author is sounding the alarm, but forgive me for ignoring the worrywort: the woman clearly doesn't feel special enough to smile at the rip-off. She's worried about money, corporate ownership, toxins, and a whole lot of other non-special stuff:

Greater Boston spends 1,364 times the cost of perfectly good public water for Aquafina, despite indistinguishable differences, and Bostonians are not alone. Similar patterns repeat themselves across the United States.

Other scientific studies show that bottled water is no safer than public water, and often less safe, sometimes with high concentrations of toxins like arsenic and mercury. Food and Drug Administration rules for bottled water quality are quite poor compared to Environmental Protection Agency rules for tap water. But if bottled water is not necessarily cleaner or safer than public water, why have bottled water sales doubled in the United States over the past decade? And why do one of six people in the United States only drink bottled water?

The industry, led by Pepsi, Nestlé, and Coke is trying to dupe us. Misleading advertising is fueling the explosive growth of this industry. According to the most recent statistics available, in 2002 bottled water corporations spent $93.8 million to portray their products as “pure,” “safe,” “clean,” “healthy” and superior to tap water.

... Water bottling, is a fast-growing $55 billion a year business. Corporations take water from underground springs and municipal sources without regard to scarcity or human rights, and are setting out to replace our public water with a high-priced, aggressively marketed product.

... Corporations like Pepsi, Coke, and Nestlé are seeking to transform water into a commodity that can be sold for profit to the highest bidder. Instead of buying into this approach, people across the United States should be demanding that our public water systems are well maintained....