The bottled water industry is selling a vision of purity and people are buying it. They don’t realize is that bottled water is actually much less regulated than tap water. There are a number of studies in which we find arsenic, disinfection byproducts and bacteria in bottled water.

Tom Paulson, of Seattle P-I reports:

America’s infatuation with drinking high-priced “natural” water from a bottle rather than from the tap is contributing to global warming and could even qualify as an immoral act.

That, at least, is the position of a number of environmental, social justice and religious organizations. …

More than 8 billion gallons of bottled water is consumed annually in the U.S. — an 8-ounce glass per person per day — representing $11 billion in sales. The Earth Policy Institute estimated that to make the plastic for the bottles burns up something like 1.5 million barrels of oil, enough to power 100,000 cars for a year. Nearly 90 percent of the bottles are not recycled. -> Full article