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Bottled Water

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99% of bottled water drinkers agree that other people should drink less bottled water

Fact? Or just something that makes you feel morally superior?

Humor.

Here's another fact about bottled water: it tastes the way water should taste without having to drain a few gallons of tap water. There could be a million reasons why the water in my kitchen tap smells unless drained for a while, but I'll rather go and buy a bucket of Poland Springs to get my tea and coffee right.

Maybe you should consider a plumber. Or at least a Brita filter.

...Or I'll save myself a trouble and just buy a $4 4gal jug of water with _guaranteed_ taste I like.

I work outside in 40C heat, in the sun for 8-10 hours a day; municipal water doesn't cut it for me. I've drank over 4 liters of water inside of an 8 hour period and have still needed to drink a minimum of a 1L gatorade to get hydrated enough to actually urinate. (Note: we're recommended to drink 1.2 liters in a day, and I can get through 5 liters in 1/3, it's advised to drink no more than 1 liter per hour* of heavy exercise or extreme heat exposure before you risk water intoxication)

Water Jug coolers simply don't cut it, even filled with ice cubes you'll only get until noon. I freeze 3 bottles of water, use ice packs and still my water can start getting warm on a hot sunny day.

Since I moved to an apartment building our water has actually been of good enough quality to filter. Where I used to live the water had an acrid taste, even filtered, and when we had a municipal waterline break it only made it worse (note because we had bottle water, we weren't all that concerned when we didn't have water for two days).

I use a bottle for a work week, refilling it with filtered water. I buy it for at most $3 (got it down to $2 before) a case containing ~4.6 gallons (35 x 500ml) and it's spring not municipal. Here in Canada it has to provide the source, has mineral contents on the label (my tap doesn't!) and as for meeting e.coli tests I find it rather moot considering the water is ozonated, and it's there whenever my water supply is down.

The facts about bottled water, for me, is that it enables me to stay hydrated (and cooler) during a day without dying from dehydration, it can be stored at ambient temperatures for well over a year, it's of a far better quality than my bare municipal supply, doesn't contain insane amounts of fluoride (or any) and supplies the mineral contents. Most importantly of all (for some people I know who are affected by this in Hamilton) it doesn't even contain trace amounts of lead or mercury, and considering the Hamilton region is considering changing the makeup of their municipal water so that it doesn't leach lead from piping rather than remove the lead pipes!

I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable with the idea of drinking or even showering in leaded water. Despite lead absorption through skin being rare, I think when it's covering your entire body it's present at some rate.

Sorry, bottled water is just fine for me. The reason I filter water is because it's economically prudent and for all I can tell (where I am at least) it tastes the same. Not buying 3 cases of water a week saves me roughly $450 in a year, which can be spent wherever I want from buying that $100 bottle of scotch to buying video games or whatever, I could even use that $450 to take the better part of a week off and who knows, plant a tree to save the environment or some other crap. There's far better ways to save the planet than to worry about bottled water, you know by renovating power plants, building nuclear + green, subsidizing improvements to home insulation levels. Offer subsidies to people who buy high-efficiency appliances, like washing machines (generally the most expensive appliance to run in any house) and dryers.

  I work outside in 40C heat, in the sun for 8-10 hours a day;

The record high temperature in Hamilton is 38.8C, and the average high during the summer is 27.3C.

  I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable with the idea of drinking or even 
  showering in leaded water. Despite lead absorption through skin 
  being rare, I think when it's covering your entire body it's 
  present at some rate.

Then either filter your well water (the municipal water is fine):

http://www.hamilton.ca/HealthandSocialServices/PublicHealth/...

Or replace the lead pipes in your building:

http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartments/PublicWorks/WaterAndW...

Yes, the record dry heat is 38.8C congratulations, we're on a gigantic lake, which has been putting up the temperature by about 10C when calculated as the humidex. For the past 6 weeks we've been hitting an average of about 38C on the humidex. Obviously you're in some miracle location where humidity doesn't have any bearing on heat, we are.

The city of Hamilton has been doing a large campaign for the past few months (until everyone got distracted by where to put the tigercats stadium and no one cares about lead in the water anymore) on how to deal with lead in the supply lines to many houses, and have currently got no plan on what to do. They're considering changing the makeup of the water so that it doesn't leach lead out of the existing lines (note the levels of lead are upon entering the system are safe, not necessarily exiting the system). There's a big concern, because a lot of houses only have about 2ft of exposed lead piping, normally well concealed, for the homeowner to know they have a lead supply line or not.

They're currently offering a $2000 loan to cover the cost of replacing your private lines (on the inside of your house) which is woefully insufficient to say the city provided the original supply lines, and then they'll cover the work to replace the private line that connects to the municipal line (IE everything outside of your house, much of which is well below city property in the downtown areas this concerns).

Please don't try to pick apart my comment, this isn't reddit.

Water Jug coolers simply don't cut it, even filled with ice cubes you'll only get until noon. I freeze 3 bottles of water, use ice packs and still my water can start getting warm on a hot sunny day.

I don't understand this at all. Why can't you freeze a bunch of reusable bottles with tap water? Are you saying that the thermal properties of tap water differ significantly from those of bottled water?

it doesn't even contain trace amounts of lead or mercury

How do you know that? Did you hire an independent testing lab to verify that?

To the latter; the water is independently tested by a government agency, and as I said the mineral contents (including heavy metals) is posted on the label.

To the former, as you obviously read enough of my comment, I stated I fill the bottles on average 4 times a week (new bottles monday used until friday) with filtered water. Tap water here tastes disgusting and has huge amounts of chlorine, and in areas the municipal and house lines contain lead or are made of lead.

the mineral contents (including heavy metals) is posted on the label.

Interesting. I didn't know that the Canadian government is responsible for claims made on label packaging.

Tap water here tastes disgusting and has huge amounts of chlorine, and in areas the municipal and house lines contain lead or are made of lead.

Ah, thanks for explaining. Your comment was filled with so much unnecessary detail that I failed to connect the dots. I imagine that you could replace most of it with just this sentence.

Food standards agency is responsible for checking the claims made on packaging labels, whether they do or not is one of the many mysteries of our government.

I'm not sure how much of that info-page to believe. Right at the top it cites bottled water as costing $10/gallon, which is way more than I've ever paid.

I've never understood why people dislike bottled water, yet seem to ignore soft drinks. Soft drinks are packed with sugar, acid, colourings, synthetic sugars, flavourings; while a bottle of water is a healthy alternative. Granted, people should be more prepared and purchase a reusable bottle for water, but soft drinks should be the target for these things.

Because most homes don't have a tap that dispenses soft drinks for basically nothing?

Another reason is that soft drink bottlers in the US don't claim that they're using "natural" spring water when they're just using municipal water supplies. That lack of deception might explain some of the difference.

Finally, some of the bottled water hatred is specifically focused on Fiji water. Soft drinks tend to be bottled locally whereas Fiji water is shipped to the US from an island in the Pacific controlled by a dictatorial regime. The idea of shipping water across the planet because idiots are easily seduced by a glossy marketing campaign rankles some.

I was more comparing it as a drink that you would consume away from home, going into a shop and choosing between a myriad of soft drinks and water products. Although I do see your point.

Coca-cola tried that municipal/tap water scam in the UK, but ended up having their product pulled from the shelves because it was contaminated with bromate. After that happened, they completely pulled the brand from the UK.

There's the other side of the local argument. Soft drink manufacturers tend to source the water locally, so you get reports of bottling plants competing with local farmers by draining water from aquifers in poor countries.

Anyway, I agree with all you have said, but I still think soft drinks are the worse of the two. They screw up peoples' health.

I still think soft drinks are the worse of the two. They screw up peoples' health.

I think we totally agree.

Another fact: You can choose one that tastes better than your local tap water. Brita or not. Boiled or not. I still prefer Highland Spring over both other bottled waters and tap water, just because of the taste. I can go through 1L of it a day in summer (or more if I go to the gym) and it would have to cost ~10 times more before I'd consider not buying it.

Amen. I'm buying only Poland Spring just because of this reason. Actually have to go to different grocery stores because of that.

These infographics never seem to be created by people with hard water or well water. Life does exist outside of San Fransico, and even with a water treatment system, water can taste bad. Sometimes people take action for reasons you don't understand.

I have a Brita at home but on the go I buy bottled water. I don't see it as any less harmful than other bottled beverages so I can only guess that the environmentalist fringe is opposed to consumption of all bottled beverages. I don't know why they can't target more realistic goals. Making people feel bad about satisfying the basic human need of hydration is really stupid. There are better things to focus on.

I can only guess that the environmentalist fringe is opposed to consumption of all bottled beverages

You need not guess; I propose some explanations later in the comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1593158

I don't know why they can't target more realistic goals.

Who is they? And do "they" matter?

Making people feel bad about satisfying the basic human need of hydration is really stupid.

How do you know the desired goal is making people feel bad rather than informing them? Actions have consequences. Surely you don't think that everyone should be shielded from learning about the consequences of their actions in general?

What this infographic fails to mention is that almost all the bottled water starting its life as municipal water has been filtered via reverse osmosis, and processed via UV and ozone during the bottling.

What does this gain you? The main advantage is that you remove the fluoride. America is insane for fluoridating her water supply. Intentionally adding poison to the water, using dental care as the excuse. Sorry, but medicating the entire population is just stupid. There is no way to monitor dosage.

Anything is poisonous/toxic given the right conditions and dosage. Under the right conditions I can kill you using pure O2. The only thing that is "stupid" is clinging to silly good chemical/bad chemical dichotomies without taking context and dosage into consideration.

Low-dosage flouride in a water supply has been shown over and over again in epidemiological studies to reduce the incidence of oral cavities from 15-40%. There have been no reputable studies to show that there are dangers to this low dose.

Dosage is exactly my point. Dosage is cumulative. Those studies do not correlate the dosage of water to the fluoride people receive from other sources, such as their food. Nor do they measure the concentrating effect that the use of fluoridated water in the production of various food-stuffs has on the end product. This is a big "?" that no one wants to address.

Please elaborate on how you would make pure O2 toxic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity

Thankfully my municipality does allow me to monitor dosage:

http://www.city.milwaukee.gov/water/about/WaterQuality.htm

For 2009, the highest fluoride levels were 2.06 mg/L and the median level was 0.77 mg/L. So there's at least one data point.

I have family that doesn't live in a large or even a medium sized town, their water tastes terrible, you put a filter on it (PUR, Brita) and it still tastes bad. They almost have to buy bottled water for drinking. Not everyone lives in a city with good water treatment facilities.

That alone is reason for them to buy bottled water but I'll add your fluoride facts to my conversations in the future.

Note to lobbyists, creating this kind of a website only makes you look guilty: http://www.fluorideworks.org/

I'm kind of skeptical that 17 barrels of oil is enough to fuel a car for a year.

20 gallons of gas per barrel of oil http://www.eia.doe.gov/ask/gasoline_faqs.asp#gallons_per_bar...

11,400 average distance in miles driven per year in the US (in 1994 anyway) http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/rtecs/chapter3.html

11,400 miles / (17 barrels or 340 gallons) = 33.5 mpg

You can reasonably expect to get better than that in a hybrid. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybrid_sbs.shtml

A bloated infographic is up to 10,000 times the size of a few lines of text.

Still, we all have no problem finding half-assed excuses. I think mine is pretty good:

Sure, you Americans are insane for buying uncarbonated water in bottles, who would do shit like that? I, however, don’t like and don’t drink uncarbonated water. Whenever I drink water it has to be carbonated (which isn’t all that great because the tap water quality in my region is actually pretty awesome — miles ahead pretty much anything you could get in bottles, especially the cheap stuff). Oh, sure, there are these gizmos that let you carbonate your tap water but it just doesn’t taste the same. I tried pretty much every brand.

See, I promised you a half-assed excuse.

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