Do you actually purchase water in plastic bottles? Do you not have perfectly good water at home?

No, I bought a metal container and fill it with tap water everyday

No, I don’t buy bottled water, but that’s beside point – @judochop you’re back! We’ve missed you!

I would not pay for water. I’m not fond of the water I have at home but it is too expensive to be buying and it doesn’t make sense when you can actually get it for free.

A local shire, Bundanoon, in NSW (Australia) two weeks ago banned the sale of all bottled water in a “Green” effort. I drink a lot of bottled water, but not still water – mineral water water or soda water (Seltzer). I go through several litres per day.

I’m a metal bottle guy, now that I finally found one in a good size.

I’m asking this because I watched 4 bike riders all of which had water bottles on thier bikes buy water in bottles at the store yesterday.
It amazes me that not only can you buy water in plastic at the store but you have 12 different options.
@supermouse :
thanks! I’ve been away for so long and super busy.

I have bottled water delivered to my house regularly. I don’t want to consume fluoridated tap water.

Evian water costs next to nothing around here, why bother with tap water?

i prefer a glass bottle. my water at home is so good. second to none.

i am picky with my water though. i hate shitty tap water.

more important: that you don’t buy booze in plastic bottles.

The only time I buy bottled water is when I’m stuck at a concession stand and have to make a choice between that, soda, juice or going without fluids altogether.

@Jack_Haas; because it is absolutely horrible for the environment and completely irresponsible?

@doggywuv; Fluoride in tap water is not a danger, and it’s good for your teeth.

@Jayne flouride is not good for your teeth or anything else.

I admit. I’m a bottle water guy. I grew up in NYC, where the water is damn good.

Ever since moving to Dirty Jersey, I can’t stand the tap. I’ve tried, numerous times. Adding salt, boiling it, whatever. I’m a horrible person, okay. Fine.

@Jayne But bad for your brain. Take a look at this page as well.

Where I live, I’m told the water is relatively safe and clean but it smells and tastes horrible so at home we have a pitcher with a filter for tap water. When on the go I might buy bottled water but it’s not a habit and I don’t want to make it one even if the water were free because of the packaging involved and so many tests that say bottled water isn’t any better than filtered tap water.

NO .
I have SIGG , Nalgene and Thermos bottles all plastic apart from SIGG its aluminium i use water from home . Chances are bottled store water is tap water just with a fancy label , and you pay over the odds for it .

Flouride is bad for teeth C

I Brita. (Is that a verb, too?)

@Zen it is now! Brita filters are wondeful.

Well, back in high school I would bring 2 waterbottles to school a day. A waterbottle at home effectively cost us about 20 cents (To buy in a 24pack or whatever), but a waterbottle at school was $1.25.
I rarely ever re-used those bottles. Though we do bring bottles in for recycling.

These days I drink straight from the refrigerator’s output, and I drink quite a bit.

@Jayne Shipping bottles of water thousands of miles across oceans doesn’t make sense. No one could imagine that springs of mineral water can’t be found on all continents. But if you live 2–300 miles away from the spring, it’s not a lot of pollution relative to the global movement of foods and beverages.

The only problem I have with plastic bottles is this report of plastic leakages at high temperatures that might be harmful to health, but then it means no soda, no vegetable oil etc… so as far as I’m concerned the jury’s still out on this one.

Side question, as I’ve run out of questions for today: I’ve read the various articles here vis a vis flouride and teeth. I’m concerned now. What the hell should we brush with then?

@deni , doggywuv,
Are those supposed to be reliable scientific sources???
Fluoride is a mineral that occurs naturally in most water supplies. Fluoridation is the adjustment of the natural fluoride concentration to about one part of fluoride to one million parts of water. Fluoridation is safe and effective in preventing tooth decay.

Why don’t you check out this link that actually supports all its claims with accurate sources.
http://www.quackwatch.com/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=fluoride

I buy bottled water all the time, the tap water smells of chlorine and contains Fluoride. With bottle water I know that it is pure.

I am totally against the buying of bottled water, particularly in small plastic bottles for environmental reasons. At home, we put our tap water in a Brita pitcher in the fridge. I will ocassionally buy bottled water out if I I haven’t brought water from home or there isn’t a drinking fountain, but this is very rare. In restaurants, I always drink the tap water. By the way, Daisani water is bottled by Coke and is the water that is local to the the bottling plant.

I hate water. Sad, but true. If it’s a really hot day and I’m in need of some water it has to be ice cold. I prefer bottled water and for some reason I really like water out of a water fountain.

I can just as easily find a report demonstrating that it is good for the teeth. Really, it’s not yet certain what the effects are, but considering how many toxins we are exposed to every day, it’s really not of great concern at the levels of concentration involved. What is certainly of concern is the pollution caused, not only by the transportation of bottled water that @Jack_Haas mentions, but also the use of petroleum to make the bottles, and most importantly of all, the huge amount of waste created by the disposal of the bottles.

@Girl_Powered I don’t have a citation unfortunately, but I have heard that the water that comes out of your tap is subject to much more stringent testing and control than bottled water.

@PretentiousArtist @Jayne What’s so special about metal containers for water? I’ve seen a few girls around campus with them.

@Sarcasm Supposedly, plastic and nalgene bottles leach chemicals into the water – I don’t know if this is true or not.

Most bottled water is exactly the same as tap water. Just cleverly and prettily bottled and marketed. That bottled water even exists and sells is mostly down to clever marketing and Pr stunts, such as the ones many here seem to have fallen for. Idiotic statements about toxins and the likes. Before you buy your next bottle of water – make sure you know where the water is from. Because do you really want to pay extra for what is already in your tap???

@janbb
You are right. Tap water is tested and cleaned rigorously. Of course it is. Children drink it and no one gets sick from it. In whose interest would it be to distribute bad water? Cities and towns are obliged to publish their tests and screenings of their water supplies. Check it out and compare it to bottled water. It is all just water.

@Sarcasm: LIsten to the wise janbb and don’t reuse (or even use) plastic bottles.

Bisphenol A

I have well water that is lovely but has a mild sulphur smell. I put a pitcher in refrig. for 24 hours.

The figure for newborn kids with autism has risen from 1 in 150 to 1 in 91. We are all filled with heavy metals, and general toxicity.

@janbb

>I have heard that the water that comes out of your tap is subject to much more
> stringent testing and control than bottled water.

The water here in Australia has to be labeled accurately or the company is likely to go out of business. They are very tough when it comes to accuracy in labeling. A few years ago they shut down one of Australia’s biggest supplement companies, Pan Pharmaceuticals for not meeting legal requirements about products. They have some of the world’s toughest consumer laws here.

@janbb
No plastic bottled do not leak toxins into the water
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4060

@gailcalled
‘The figure for newborn kids with autism has risen from 1 in 150 to 1 in 91. We are all filled with heavy metals, and general toxicity.’

Could you please show which scientific studies back up that statement and how it relates to water.

Or could it be…gasp…that many more children are diagnosed today…gasp.
Because surely you do not mean that the newborns are diagnosed -because you must know that autism is not possible to diagnose in newborns…

@johanna I don’t have strong a opinion on that part – plastic bottles being toxic or not – I was just addressing Sarcasm’s question about why he is seeing people with metal bottles. I do think that if you are planning to carry water with you all the time, it should be water from home in a re-usable bottle or some kind.

@Girl_Powered That’s interesting about Australia. I don’t think that bottled water is necessarily unhealthy, just that it is a terrible waste for environmental reasons and not healthier than tap water in most cases. Of course, there may be places where the water is really terrible, in which case buy large bottles or filter your tap water.

@Jayne yeah, you’re right, you can find reports on both sides. regardless, we consume enough toxins as it is, so if i can eliminate any of them i will. i really dont need my drinking water to help me maintain nice teeth though, i can do that myself.

Some brands play on the fact that most people ignore that “bottled” doesn’t necessarily mean “spring” but that doesn’t mean MOST brands are just tap water with a bunch of minerals. Just stick to the well-known brands that have been around for decades if not centuries and whose health benefits have been known for about as long.

@johanna

Don’t you give credence to the placenta test that can determine autism in the womb, or the Yale tests that use eye movements in babies?

I thought that they were showing positive results?

@Girl_Powered Please give me a source.
These must be exiting new tests. Autism is not detected through blood, cells or genes. So how is a test from the placenta supposed to say anything about austism???
And what about the eye movements in babies? Please explain!

@johanna

I am not a doctor or a scientist. I have no idea how they work. They were on the Discovery Channel a few months ago. They made it sound as though it was the new way to do it.

@johanna

google placenta and autism diagnosis, there are thousands of hits.

@Girl_Powered – it looks like this 2006 study is what you’re referring to re: the placental test.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-66963.html
It was published in 2006 and apparently a bigger trial is underway. The original study involved just 13 children with autism, and that’s way too few to generalize with.

Also, even if larger studies support the connection of the placental inclusion bodies with autism, I don’t think it’s likely to be a prenatal test. That would suggest pregnant couples making a decision to terminate a pregnancy to avoid parenting a child who might have autism. That’s a quite a leap from curent prenatal testing for chromosomal defects where the diagnosis is 100% reliable.

Our tap water tastes like mud. We can and do get used to it, but now twice this year our otherwise “Superior” water system has been put under a boil-water mandate, for fecal bacteria in the drinking water, and once the water came out of all the taps bright pink. We were told it was safe to drink but most of us drank from alternate supplies.

Then, we also live in a hurricane-prone area and need to stockpile drinking water each June, “just in case.” Storing tap water in any sort of container leads to green slime, so we need a source of water that will stay drinkable on the shelf for 3 to 6 months. The simplest way to do this is to buy some form of bottled water. Typically the water with the longest shelf-life is distilled water sold in gallon jugs.

In addition, the major source of fund-raising for our various school activities is selling bottled drinks supplies by the Coca Cola distributor. Since I am trying to limit our consumption of sodas and sports drinks, that leaves bottled water.

So yes, I do buy bottled water these days. However, I do recycle all of the containers.

@Girl_Powered the number of hits does not say anything about the quality.

Please give specific examples.

@Cartman

What? Who do you think you are?

Be specific? I am not your teacher, look yourself if you wish, or not.

I never buy bottled water, I consider that to be a huge waste of money when I can get perfectly good drinking water from my tap at home! I am lucky to live in a country where I can safely drink water from the tap though, I appreciate that in some countries it isn’t as safe to do so.

@Girl_Powered
The placenta study is from 2006. It hasn’t been verified and is definitely not in use.
As to the eye movement – that is not in regards to infants. It is quite interesting though – scientists study what provokes a reaction in kids with autism vis-a-vis kids without. But it cannot be used until the kid is around 15 months or so. So still no detection method for infants or the unborn.

I still don’t get what this has to do with water though???

@Girl_Powered no, your not my teacher but you can’t claim something to be true and support that claim with google it “there are thousands of hits”. The number of hits has nothing to do with the quality of the results. Your argument is BS.

I’m thankful that your are not my teacher.

@johanna: Here is one article about the figures released last week by the CDC:http://www.pr.com/press-release/184258

And from The Mayo Clinic

http://www.pr.com/press-release/184258

I have a grand-nephew who falls on the low end of the Autistic Spectrum; we grasp at straws; we take a conservative approach; the community of parents and grandparents with autistic kids or grandkids is sadly growing.

Have the heavy metals in your blood checked next time you get blood work done. The levels that are described as safe by the FDA are suspect. I feel it is better to be safe than sorry.

Smoking used to be considered safe. Gasp. Asbestos was ignored by the companies who made it until an unconscionable number of people got sick and died. Gasp.

Edit: I do stand corrected. Diagnosis is not make until kids are a year or so old and show alarming symptoms; and not just being developmentally slow.

no
i drink tap water.
also most of the water you can buy is carbonated, e.g. soda.
i HATE that

We had to purchase it when our son was bottle fed, because it was the easiest way to make bottles. (I did not want to use bathroom sink water from any old place) I rarely drink bottled water…or water for that matter. But, we have a filter on our sink, which I think works just fine.

My parents do. I get water from the shower filter.

I buy bottle water from time to time. I like to have some in my car when I am on the go. I am big on drinking water. I do not like most tap water in places I have lived so I prefer to just filter it with a filtered water pitcher. I also use sugar free flavors from time to time to jazz it up when I want something else.

@Cartman

My argument is BS? I don’t have an argument, I made a comment and asked a question. Get over yourself, not everyone who posts is arguing, or needs to justify anything. There was a claim that you can’t diagnose autism in newborns – a Discovery Documentary claimed that you can, and that the eye movement thing worked to as young as nine months. I really don’t care who is right – I don’t know anyone with autism.

BTW there is a difference between your and you’re and if I was your teacher you would know that.

I buy bottled water sometimes for parties, gatherings, or if I’m biking and I want ice cold water. Other than that, no. Tap water is fine and I’m not worried about fluoride. Though my teeth are fluoride-stained and have been since I was a little kid. To this day, no one knows what caused it especially since I grew up with non-fluoridated water.

@gailcalled
Please tell me what water has to do with autism. I do not understand what you mean.

Neither of your links say anything about autism and water or about metals in the blood or anything else.

They will find autism comes from a genetic defect. I have a son who has fragile x syndrome and they diagnosed him with autism before we found out it was genetic. It has nothing to do with shots or water and all to do with cell division when the baby is developing in the mothers womb.

The entire family is no longer drinking or eating anything housed in plastic containers.

My citations were for the recent statistics on autism.

And here is the Harvard study on Bisphenol A in plastic food containers. Canada has banned it in plastic baby bottles.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/22/harvard_study_backs_bottle_concern/

@Girl_Powered
Maybe this is just a question of semantics. Infants, newborn, babies, toddlers etc.
There is no detection method for newborns. The earliest claims for detection I have found are for 15 month olds but even those are hard to verify since we are talking about young people who cannot really express themselves – regardless of weather they have an autism spectrum disorder or not..

By the way ridiculing people for misspelling…isn’t that a bit low – like we all don’t make mistakes?

All it tied together. The plastics and so forth key into the mother when the babies are being developed. It is true toxins are in so many things these days.

I knew something was wrong with my baby when he was 9 months old when he was not doing things other babies his age were able to do. Like sit up and hold his own bottle among fear of textures.

I think environment plays a key in gen defects.

And soon i can add camelbak to the list , you can never have enough proper reusable bottles in my eyes .

so weather or not it is caused by toxins in plastic or what have it. I believe in the end they will find that the majority of people diagnosed with autism or in the spectrum will have some sort of gen defect. Most just have not been found yet as science is always expanding in this area.

@gailcalled
Isn’t it a bit strong to villify all plastic bottles due to one component?
Not all plastic is made of the same compounds you know.

@johanna: What’s spelling got to due with autism or BPA or arsenic or mercury or aluminum or noxious fumes or general health or increase in brain tumors, pancreatic cancer, etc.

Feel free to drink, eat, breathe and smoke what you like. I am not your keeper.

@Grisaille Welcome to the Dirty side. Though I must say, it seems loads cleaner than NYC in the area I’m at. And I found the tap water in NYC to be the worst I’ve ever had – but maybe I was just spoiled before I came here. Best tap water in America comes from Monument, Colorado.

In answer to the question, I also abhorr bottled water. No reason to buy it except for large parties and at drive-throughs if you dislike soda and the sugar-drink they call iced tea.

@johanna

>There is no detection method for newborns. The earliest claims for detection I
> have found are for 15 month olds but even those are hard to verify

I don’t think that you have tried very hard.

Yale University’s Toddler Developmental Disabilities Clinic is using similar eye-tracking technology to study patterns in gaze behavior in children ages 3 months to 3 years. And researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab are developing specialized software and an in-home recording device to analyze the habits of newborns in hopes of teasing out the most subtle signs of early autism.

>By the way ridiculing people for misspelling…isn’t that a bit low – like we all don’t
> make mistakes?

Yes, his was being a smart-ass to me about teaching.

For those who have bad tap water in home , buy a filter it can be a tap a britax filter system or a reverse osmosis . The fact you have bad water doesn’t mean you have to buy bottles .

@gailcalled
Spelling? If you look back you will see I was not addressing you with that remark.

@gailcalled
Surely you do not mean that these studies you are citing actually claim to be able to detect autism at that age? That is not what I understand from perusing them and other materials. Many scientists are working on it and hopefully their attempts will lead to fruition nut unfortunately it is as of yet not possible.

I use a metal water bottle filled with Pittsburgh’s Finest Tap Water.

It is good.

@Girl_Powered I don’t know of any doctor that would send a newborn for autism testing, or anything of the sort…unless they felt it was a medical problem like cerebral palsy.

@sandystrachan – Our water is also very hard (very high in dissolved calcium carbonate) which greatly shortens filter life. In addition, this site says the Brita-type filter does not filter out bacteria or viruses, just “reduces*: – bad taste and odour (e.g. chlorine) – heavy metals (e.g. lead) – fine solid particles (e.g. rust and sand) – organic impurities (e.g. pesticides).”

Thus we would still need to boil the water. It would just taste better.

@Darwin

Just curious, where would you live that would have that bad of water?

@casheroo

>I don’t know of any doctor that would send a newborn for autism testing, or anything of
> the sort…

Nor do I. What has that to do with the fact that they develop these tests? I imagine that there would be times when they are needed or they wouldn’t waste time with them. I have zero interest in them, other than after having watched a documentary on them I was aware that it was possible and apparently in the near future about to become commonplace.

Our tap water tastes like crap, and I drink too much water for the Brita pitcher to handle. Yes. I buy bottled water.

@Darwin Wouldn’t a reverse osmosis filter help you out , yet stay alive longer even in your water conditions . ?
Side note has anyone else noticed fluther acting funny , when you @ the list of names doesn’t appear and the live typing doesn’t show . Rebooted firefox cleared everything aswell , still the same anyone ?

@DominicX – Southern Texas. Our city seems to have been going through a run of ineffectual and/or incompetent employees for several decades now.

We have also had problems with our landfill repeatedly (we managed to set it on fire and not put it out, we managed to keep open longer than the feds or the state allows, and we managed to mis-design the new landfill so we couldn’t use it without spending big bucks to re-do it) and our Street Department is infamous for taking years longer to fix a street than estimates indicated. And we also have sewers that haven’t been repaired or upgraded in fifty years so they are now collapsing.

Welcome to our third-world life style. At least our city has water and electricity. The colonias don’t.

@Girl_Powered That’s ridiculous. Can you link any of the information you are providing?

@casheroo

>That’s ridiculous

What’s ridiculous?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121545978096433273.html

I don’t know why nobody seems to bother doing google searches, all the information under discussion is readily found.

Wow. That was nasty.

@Girl_Powered The fact that almost all my friends have children, and I have them…I know these things first hand. I read the article. Of course eye contact is a major sign of a problem. But even with KidStart or KidsFirst (whatever the government provided early intervention is called, I forget, but they let anyone use it, for all sorts of issues. Heck, I could complain to my doctor and get my son evaluated.) doctors do NOT recommend testing until past 2 years old..30 months is 2½ years old. I don’t care how many links you pull off the internet, unless there is a major issue with the child, they would not test for Autism. Early intervention at 2½ is VERY early intervention for Autism, and a parent would know something was wrong by that point.

@casheroo

Don’t tell me about it, tell the researchers at the many universities who seem to disagree with you. I have no idea why they are doing it, I don’t have kids, none of my friends do yet, and at the moment they are not of interest so childhood problems don’t really occupy a lot of my time. None of that changes the fact that there are many different research institutions apparently trying very hard to diagnose at the earliest possible moment. I have no idea why, but as a guess I would imagine that they are hoping to have more success with treatment or cure if they can diagnose earlier. Or maybe they just have nothing better to do.

We have one of those gadgets that hooks up to the sink, flip a switch and it gives out filtered water. I fill up a water bottle with that everyday, healthier and cheaper.

I have a reverse osmosis, 3 stage filter system.

Tap water has too many funky things in it.

@Jack_Haas – I’m curious, now. Which brands of bottled water have been around for centuries?

@laureth – Evian is one such. It dates back to 1789. And San Pellegrino (1509 or earlier).

Vittel, Perrier and Evian have all been around for more than a century in bottles, and longer as health spa resorts.

Huh! I had no idea! :)

To be fair, Evian has only been selling bottled water for just over 100 years

@Sarcasm ”1826: The Duke of Savoy gave his permission to start bottling water from the spring” just to be a Besserwisser.

The Romans set up health resorts near the springs Badoit is extracted from.

Mineral water has certainly been around a long time. It is the explosion of its consumption in the last few decades combined with the switch to selling it in plastic bottles that is so environmentally troubling.

I used to buy Evian but in Australia, it is very expensive. So we have a filter system at home. I guess it is doing its job, who knows for sure?

I agree plastic is poisoning the oceans for sure and probably us as well.

I used BPA free Camelback but hate the bite me mouth pieces. Then I tried stainless steel 360 (i can’t find the degree symbol) but the opening is too big and it dribbles down my cheeks. Now I am using Sigg and I like it but it is made of aluminum which some say is a part of the increasing Altzheimers problem, but it is lined with something that is supposed to save you from the aluminum so that is my choice at the moment.

If however I am out somewhere and I want a cold drink of water, I will buy a bottle but I do feel guilty when I do it!

Where I live, the tap water is so heavily chlorinated that it tastes terrible, like drinking a glass of Clorox, even after filtering. So yes, we buy bottled water, though we’d rather not.

We have really great tasting tap water here, and I store it in the refrigerator in repurposed glass bottles, such as Looza bottles. When I take it out, it’s usually in a metal bottle.

My well water is freakin’ awesome. That’s what I drink. But I also buy distilled water in gallon jugs because I need it for my CPAP machine.

Guys… guys… chill out. Have a glass of water and cool down.

Let’s summarize: Tap water is fine, but tastes bad in some places. In that case, it’s best for the environment for you to use Brita (and your budget) but if you must purchase bottles, please recycle.

Okay?

I bottle my own. Done it forever. Bottled water is a disgrace. Can’t believe people drink their Aquafina and hold their book up, as if they can read, and think they’re doing the world a favor. I want to smack them and show them all the pollution and garbage they’re making.
I get so aggravated.

@Clair I bottle my own. Done it forever. Bottled water is a disgrace. Can’t believe people drink their Aquafina and hold their book up, as if they can read, and think they’re doing the world a favor.

How can you determine whether the bottle that are holding is a nearly purchased one or one they have also “bottled their own”? Many people who use a filter system will refill water bottles with their “pop-seal” tops purely for convenience.

My attitude toward people drinking Coke and the like is similar to your attitude to people drinking water. When I see a small child who is heavily overweight sucking on a Coke or similar while in the company of their parents I want to tap the parents on the shoulder and have a chat – but I don’t.

Agree with @DarkScribe: coke and its ilk are the enemy.

I love Coke, I only allow myself a cold can once a week or so, usually when I have a long drive to make. It is pretty much the only sugar or caffeine in my diet so when I do have it, I get on a sugar caffeine high and it keeps me awake. Plus I love it! I have tasted some of the finest vintages of the 20th century (I quit drinking in 1990) and none of it was as good as a frosty cold can of Coke!

We don’t drink Coke any longer. It has too much phosphorus in it, which is bad for kidneys.

I know it is bad but I just love the stuff. It is such a treat when I have a can now and then. I feel the same way about ice cream, I don’t have it often so when I do, it is such a true delight!

@DarkScribe I’m not 100% sure what you meant at the top but if you’re asking if I through away ever bottle that I fill with filtered water myself, then no. The whole point for me is not to waste. I’d rather take a few minutes every day rather than to do something for my convenience.
I’m the same way about soda. At least once a week, I have some overweight or totally ignorant person at school ask me why I drink water so much. Then what illness I have and why I don’t just drink diet….sickening.

@johanna
I don’t think you looked at the pages I linked to. The first was a study about water fluoridation and the second was a page with extracts from many studies. Both pages were about adverse effects of fluoride and the second page is supported by studies while the first page is a study itself! Obviously scientific studies provide support for claims and are reliable.

I only drink water and have done so since Jan. 2007. I don’t want to shell out megabucks for new bottles all the time (I drink a gallon of water a day) so I reuse my bottles. I still have a couple of Crystal Geyser bottles that I’ve reused for over two years. I do find that some types of bottles get stinky after just a couple of months (like Big K water from King Soopers, and Deep Rock), although I find bottles last longer if I use filtered water. And Crystal Geyser bottles NEVER get stinky, which I why I seek them out and pay a little extra if I have to. Aquafina bottles are also good. I have a few in my car that I’ve been reusing since 2007.
You can be sure I’m generating a lot less waste this way than the average soda and coffee drinker.