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Bottled Water vs. Water Filters

Bottled Water vs. Water Filters

Dividing Reputation from Truth

by Aquasana Store   *

It seems to be a general assumption among most people that tap water is hardly the safest or most beneficial water product. In recent decades, consumers have moved en masse away from tap water as their primary source of drinking water. Yet, if they are moving away from tap water, which water product are they moving toward? These consumers still need water in order to keep their bodies functioning. Not surprisingly, the market has catered to this need with an ever-growing number of alternative water products.

While an individual examination of each of these alternative water products is far beyond the scope of this article, you may, here, briefly examine and analyze two of the more popular water products that have risen greatly in the market in the last couple of decades: bottled water and water filters. Read on to learn about the specific advantages and/or drawbacks of each product and then feel free to enter the water market as a slightly more educated, wiser consumer.

Bottled Water
The bottled water industry consists of a giant collection of corporations that offers literally hundreds of bottled water options. In a simple grocery store, a consumer could find dozens of bottled water choices, ranging from pure, spring water, to mineral water, to energy-enhanced water. Amazingly, these choices do not even include the number of bottled water options that are available at health food or specialty stores.

Each water product is equally touted to be the very best, most pure drinking water product available, and, more often than not, bottles of water are priced to match their reputation. So, as a water consumer who wants to purchase the very best product for his money, a natural question arises: Are any of these bottles of water worth their exorbitant price? And then, if they are worth the price, which product is the best and which should be invested in?

Unfortunately, most bottles of water are hardly worth their price and may be even more dangerous than tap water (which one receives practically free, anyway). The reason for the quality discrepancy between bottled water and tap water lies in a complex system of rules and regulations that has favored bottled water companies at the expense of water consumers.

Bottled water is currently considered a food product and, thus, lies under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Tap water, on the other hand, lies under the much more stringent jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The relatively lax rules and regulations of the FDA allow bottled water companies a great amount of leeway in the products they produce and market toward consumers. For example, bottled water companies, under the rules of the FDA, are required to test for harmful microbiological contaminants in their products only once a week. Conversely, the EPA mandates such testing for tap water several times a day. Also, under FDA guidelines, water that is bottled and sold within the same state is not required to undergo even this minimal testing.

Bottled water rarely consists of the natural spring water that its bottles advertise. The Resources Defense Council recently published results of a study that found that _ of bottled water was little more than tap water in a bottle, sometimes further treated and sometimes not. The same study found that approximately 20% of bottles tested contained a greater amount of dangerous microbiological contaminants than would be allowed under EPA regulations for tap water.

Clearly, bottled water is hardly worth its extreme price. While some European brands can be trusted to be cleaner and healthier than tap water (due to stricter regulations), these bottles still do not warrant prices approaching nearly $2 a bottle.

Filtered Water
Water filters have been widely advertised as the newest, most innovative solution to the problem of drinking water contamination. Knowing what we do about bottled water advertising, however, can we trust the promises made by water filter manufacturers and retailers? The answer to this question is yes. In large part, we can trust the promises of water filter manufacturers. In general, water filters are remarkably designed to work with the specific challenges and contaminants of municipally treated water.

Water filters employ a combination of both physical and chemical filtration methods to remove more dangerous contaminants from drinking water than any other treatment alternative. Physically, water filters generally use a granular media to block the passage of large contaminants like bacteria and heavy metals. Chemically, water filters use a specially designed ionic media (generally constructed from carbon) to attract smaller, more elusive contaminants like chlorine and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs).

Because chlorine is usually the most dangerous and volatile contaminant present in municipally treated water, water filters play an increasingly important role in treating the water of city residents. While reverse osmosis systems and distillers are capable of removing the tough bacterial and pesticide contaminants that may plague recipients of well water, they are incapable of removing chlorine and its byproducts. Chlorine causes a host of adverse health effects and should be considered a poisonous toxin in the body.

Economically, water filters are well worth their price. Averaging at just less than $100 for the main filter unit, a water filter can provide clean, healthy water to drink for up to six months, using no electricity and wasting no water. Conversely, a six-month supply of bottled water (if one were to drink the recommended eight glasses of water per day) could cost up to $1000 for one person! This amount of money may be justified if it were being invested in a superior product, but bottled water is often of no greater quality than tap water (a product one can receive for a fraction of the cost of bottled water).

Clearly, in a comparison between bottled and filtered water, filtered water is the decisive victor. When one is seeking to avoid the dangerous health effects of drinking water contamination and invest in a quality water product, there is no better choice than a home water filter.

Summary
As water consumers increasingly shy away from tap water as their main source of drinking water, they are faced with the dilemma of choosing between great numbers of drinking water alternatives. This article analyzes and compares two of the more popular drinking water options: bottled water and filtered water. For more information about drinking water and water treatment alternatives, visit Aquasana.


 

About The Company

Aquasana

The Aquasana Store has researched and composed several articles about the most pressing issues and concerns in water treatment and drinking water quality.

 
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