 Drinking water from local sources is good for you and good for the environment!
Buying water in single-use plastic bottles relies on fossil fuels for transportation as well as plastic bottle production. Only about 10% of the bottles are recycled, while the other 90% end up in landfills or as garbage along highways, parks, open spaces and our waterways. Today there is a floating island of plastic collecting in the North Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas and growing.
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Questions About Bottled Water |
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Is bottled water safer than tap water? Bottled water is regulated by the FDA and water from municipal districts is regulated by the EPA, resulting in variations in the frequency that both waters are tested. For example, drinking water from your tap is tested multiple times a day while bottled water is not tested as frequently. Usually bottled water is only tested about once a week. This can lead to undetected contamination in the bottled water. |
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EPA Launching Major Investigation Into BPA |
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3/29/10 The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will investigate the impact of the chemical Bisphenol-A on the U.S. water supply and other parts of the environment. Federal regulators have been ramping up their scrutiny of the controversial plastic-hardener at the behest of scientists and activists who say it can interfere with infant growth and development. Read Full Article |
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What's Really in Your Bottled Water? |
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4/23/10 So many people drink bottled water because they think it is safer and cleaner than tap water. Depending on where you live, that could be true. Or not. The trouble is, most people don't really know. The bottled water industry is not subject to the same regulations as tap water and that could mean that you are paying thousands of times the cost of tap water for a product that may actually be less safe to drink. Read Full Article |
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Bisphenol A widespread in ocean water and sand |
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4/1/10 Japanese scientists testing ocean water and sea sand have found widespread contamination with high levels bisphenol A, a chemical used to make plastic that's able to mimic the female hormone estrogen in living things. Its presence in sea water comes from the breakdown of the plastic trash being dumped into the sea and from the use of the compound in anti-rusting paints applied to the hulls of ships. BPA is man-made and does not occur naturally in the environment. The researchers took samples at more than 200 sites, mainly on the coasts around North America and Southeast Asia. They detected the chemical along the shorelines of 20 countries and in every batch of water or sand tested. Read Full Article |
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Plastics in oceans decompose, release hazardous chemicals |
8/19/09 In the first study to look at what happens over the years to the billions of pounds of plastic waste floating in the world's oceans, scientists are reporting that plastics — reputed to be virtually indestructible — decompose with surprising speed and release potentially toxic substances into the water.
Reporting here today at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the researchers termed the discovery "surprising." Scientists always believed that plastics in the oceans were unsightly, but a hazard mainly to marine animals that eat or become ensnared in plastic objects. "Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable," said study lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, Ph.D. "We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future." Read Full Article |
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Drink Local
