This is an article written by Dr. Matt Ramirez, Salt Lake Chiropractor who specializes in auto injury recovery and rehabilitation and has enhanced and improved thousands of lives as well as treated people of all ages over the years. He is also an expert in health and wellness, massage therapy, chiropractic care, and more...
Sales of bottled water
have grown at a steady rate, and it’s estimated that people spend between $50
and $100 billion worldwide each year for the stuff. But is it worth it? In a
nutshell, bottled water is expensive, bad for the environment and no healthier
for you than tap water.
In terms of cost, bottled water can be up to 10,000 times
more expensive than tap water. Municipal tap water costs $0.0015 per gallon,
whereas bottled water can cost up to $10 a gallon. This works out to 7 cents an
ounce. In comparison, gasoline (which most people find expensive) is less than
3 cents an ounce. Additionally, 40% of bottled water is drawn from the same
municipal water sources your tap water comes from, but is simply filtered,
something you can easily do yourself at home.
Bottled water is bad for the environment in a few ways.
First of all, the production of water bottles is very resource intensive, using
17 million barrels of oil, enough to power 1 million cars for a year. Second,
only 1 in 5 water bottles are recycled, amounting to 3 billion pounds of wasted
plastic that ends up in landfills, and as they are not biodegradable, they will
linger for generations, taking thousands of years to decompose, slowly leaching
pthalates and other chemicals into the groundwater.
One of the main reasons people buy bottled water is due to
the belief that it is healthier than tap water; however, this is a myth.
Municipal tap water must adhere to strict monitoring standards as to water
quality, something bottled water companies need not do. For instance, bottled
water does not need to be checked for E. coli contamination, does not need to
provide the water source, is not required to produce regular quality reports
and can still be distributed when tap water level standards are not met.
Municipal water must be tested for coliform bacteria upwards of 100 times per
month, while bottled water is tested once a week. In fact, 22% of bottled water
tested proved to have chemical contaminants at levels above state health
limits.
The only real benefit of bottled water over tap is if you
are traveling in an area where the water is not reliable or there is no access
to clean water, or to have some on hand in case of a natural disaster. Apart
from that, it is better to make up your own water bottles at home. If the taste
of the water in your municipality is not great, an inexpensive carbon filter
can easily be used to make it taste just as good as the bottled version.
Good health is a combination of many factors including your
nutrition, preventative care, appropriate corrective care and the small choices
you make every day in the course of living. If you have questions about this
article, your general or spinal health, please ask. We are here to help!
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