Tap Water - Tap Water Versus Bottled Water

Tap Water Versus Bottled Water

In modern Western society, levels of contaminants found in tap water vary for every household and plumbing system. A general conception regarding water is that bottled water is designed to be 'cleaner' than conventional tap water. However, in 1999, The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released controversial findings from a four year study on bottled water. The results of this study claimed that one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination—including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic—in at least one sample that exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled water industry standards or guidelines. However, the bottled water industry was quick to dispute the claim saying bottled water is one the most highly regulated food products under the FDA regulatory authority and that the FDA system worked extremely well when coupled with the International Bottled Water Association's Model Code and unannounced inspections.

Some municipalities in the United States are making an effort to use tap water over bottled water on government properties and events. However, others voted the idea down, including voters in the state of Washington who repealed a bottled water tax via citizen initiative.

James Workman, author of the book Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought and co-founder of SmartMarkets says that he doesn't believe that "tap water is bad and bottled water is good". Rather he cites differences in quality regulations and standards. "Bottled water is often tap water put through another filter and not held to the same quality regulations as public utility water is."

Chlorine is a disinfectant which is added to tap water in the United States. Chlorine can leave organic material like trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids in the water. The level of chlorine found is small, 1L of chlorinated water gives 0.2 mg of chlorine, which is too small to cause any health problems.

While most U.S. cities have what is considered safe tap water, contaminants ranging from bacteria to heavy metals are present in some tap water and violations of tap water standards have been well-publicized, such as the severe 1993 Cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which led to several deaths and around 400,000 illnesses (see: Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak). The University of Cincinnati recently completed a Tap Water Quality Analysis, funded by PUR, for major US cities.