Bottled Water is BIG business. The global consumption of bottled water reached 41 billion gallons in 2004. According to the International Bottled Water Association, The United States, which is the world's leading consumer of bottled water, spent over $10 billion dollars in 2006. They project that US sales of bottled water will exceed $45 billion in 6 years.



One of the main reasons why bottled water sales have skyrocketed is that these corporations have convinced people, through their marketing campaigns, that bottled water is purer and cleaner than tap water. However, recent allegations against the Coca-Cola Company and its brand name of bottled water, Dasani, have publicly highlighted one of the biggest misconceptions about the quality of bottled water.

Coca-Cola, advertising its bottled water as "pure, still water," is now being investigated for misleading consumers about the true nature of the contents of its bottles. Rather than deriving its water from natural springs, Coca-Cola had been actually filling its Dasani bottles with purified tap water!

Unfortunately, the process of bottling tap water is not limited to the Coca-Cola Company. In 1999, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published the results of a four-year study in which researchers tested more than 1000 samples of 103 brands of bottled water. These researchers found that,

"An estimated 25 percent or more of bottle water is really just tap water in a bottle - sometimes further treated, sometimes not."

In one case, a brand of bottled water, advertised as "pure, glacier water," was found to be taken from a municipal water supply while another brand, flaunted as "spring water," was pumped from a water source next to a hazardous waste dumping site. While "purified tap water" is arguably safer and purer than untreated tap water (depending on the purification methods), a consumer should expect to receive something more than reconstituted tap water for the outrageous prices of bottled water.

To make matters worse, bottled water is defined as a "food" under U.S. federal regulations, and is under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- under much stricter standards-regulates tap water.

So, bottled water, depending upon the brand, may actually be less clean and safe than tap water. The EPA mandates that local water treatment plants in the United States and in Puerto Rico provide city residents with a detailed account of tap water's source and the results of any testing, including contaminant level violations. Bottled water companies are under no such directives.

In addition, loopholes in the FDA's testing policy do not require the same standards for water that is bottled and sold in the same state, meaning that a significant number of bottles have undergone almost no regulation or testing.

Alarmingly, the 1999 NRDC study found that 18 of the 103 bottled water brands tested contained, in at least one sample, "more bacteria than allowed under microbiological-purity guidelines.

It's no wonder that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that,

"Companies who promote bottled water as being safer than tap water are defrauding the American public."

The good news is that there are three ways to get purified drinking and cooking water right from home.

They are:

ï‚· Installing a distilled water system

ï‚· Installing a reverse osmosis system

ï‚· Installing a water filter system

Which is the best one? Without knowing your situation, I couldn't answer that question. I recommend that you do your homework to find the solution that makes sense for you.

For more information on how you can get purified drinking water right at home go to http://www.thefreewatereport.org and download the free report entitled: What's In Your Water? The Shocking Truth About Bottled Water and Tap Water And How You Can Protect Yourself.