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Expert Health Bloggers concerned about contamination of bottled water
A number of high-end New York restaurants drew a lot of media attention when they quietly stopped serving bottled water in favor of tap water. While many tops chefs cited environmental concerns while others had even bigger questions related to the overall health benefits of bottled water in general. Like many mainstream news stories, the state of bottled water has been a hot topic in the blogosphere for some time.
Recently, a number of well-respected health blogs weighed in with their expert analysis in order to clear up a number of popular misconceptions about the health benefits of bottled water.
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For instance, Diet Dish has a post revealing that bottled water is subject to fewer health standards and they also note that tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency whereas bottled water is considered a food product and is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. "The EPA sets standards for about 90 different potential contaminants in drinking water... Bottled water is actually tested less frequently for bacteria and chemical contaminants, and overall, the regulations are considered to be less strict." Diet Dish also commented that those purchasing bottled water were essentially flushing their money down the toilet because "about 25-40% of bottled water is simply municipal tap water put into a bottle."
Nutrition blog Fitsugar described the current state of bottled water as "alarming news" in the first sentence of one of their posts. They too delved into some disturbing facts by reporting that "22 percent of all the bottled water tested was found to have man-made chemicals, bacteria and arsenic," noticing a significant correlation Fitsygar also noted "tap water in the 19 U.S. cities tested was found to contain arsenic, lead, and pesticides."
These contaminants were only found in extremely minute quantities, therefore they emphasized that bottled water wasn't a danger to the general public. "Most healthy adults' systems can handle the contaminants but this is not always the case for those with weakened immune systems (like children and cancer patients)."
Interestingly enough, the Natural Holistic Health blog was adamant that potential health problems involved more than just the quality of the water. "Then there is the bottle itself. Like water there is a big variation in the quality of the plastic used. Poor quality plastics will leach chemicals into the water and as such you may end up being worse off than had you drunk tap water in the first place." Their post also noted some mitigating factors related to chemical exposure of bottled water. "The degree of leaching will be dependent upon how fresh the water is, how it has been stored and whether it has been exposed to the sun." A potential healthcare disaster could ensue if a large amount of poisonous water bottles were in general circulation. Unfortunately, the current state of bottled water leaves little to be optimistic about.
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