Introduction
The recent past has seen a sustained increase in the number of companies involved in the sale of bottled water. This could be informed by increased demand for bottled water as most individuals believe that bottled water is much safer than the regular tap water. I this text, I look at whether bottled water is actually a safe and worthwhile purchase.
Bottled versus Tap
A recent report released by he NDRC claimed that bottled water does not necessarily meet the quality level proclaimed by the bottle sticker. This study which was conducted over a four year period found that many companies have been deceiving customers with regard to the purity of the bottled water they sell.
According to Eshleman (2007), while it is a standard for tap water to be filtered to get rid of a wide range of pathogens and in most cases checked to ensure that it contains no traces of bacteria, organic chemicals considered organic, and a host of viruses, bottled water undergoes checks for not more than two things. In addition, bottled water is in most cases tested only once per week while for tap water tests can be done more than 50 times in a month and there are allocations of larger tests every four months.
Holloway (2006) claims that 1/3 of all the samples of bottled water tested by NRDC, were found to have a certain level of contamination. Samples were found to have traces of organic chemicals considered synthetic as well as sizeable traces of bacteria.
Conclusion
With that I mind, bottled water is not worth the purchase and hence tap water can be considered safer especially when filtered with NSF certified filters.
References
Holloway, A. (2006). Bottled Water. Jaunt Publishing LLC
Eshleman, K. (2007). Bottled Water Production in the United States: How Much Groundwater Is Actually Being Used. Lulu.com
