Is Tap Water Cleaner Than Bottled Water Sold at Stores?

What do you think? Could the above statement be true? Is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores? On the weekend of August 23rd and 24th of 2008, one group of environmentalists demonstrated a readiness to give a "yes" answer to the question that headlined this article.

Who approached them with the question: "Is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores?" What was their exact answer, and what facts did they offer in order to support their answer?

Actually, this one group of environmentalists, all residents of southern California, had begun explaining how they had abandoned their habit of drinking water from a plastic bottle. They did not want to drink water that contained phthalates. They had chosen instead to carry with them a metal water bottle, and to fill that bottle with drinking water.

An adult female, a woman who was helping those environmentalists with an annual PR effort, asked "Where do you get the water that you put in your metal container?"

The man in charge of that PR effort said, "Why from the tap. Tap water is as safe as bottled water."

That man knew that most bottled water does not come from an uncontaminated spring in the wild. Most bottled water has not bubbled to the surface from a clean and pure underground source. The majority of the water bottles on store shelves hold nothing more than simple tap water.

He had probably read the report released by the Natural Defense Council in March of 1999. That report did not begin with the question "Is tap water cleaner than bottled water sold at stores?" That article did, however, have this title: "Bottled Water. Pure Drink or Pure Hype?"

That article brought to light certain important facts. It called public attention to the extent to which tap water must adhere to certain standards, standards from which bottled water has been declared exempt. The FDA has no control over the contents of bottled water, unless that water has been transported across state lines.

When bottled water does not cross state lines, then that water can contain Cryptosporidium or Giardia, two common micro-organisms. Those same water pathogens are removed from all tap water.

The report issued by the Natural Defense Council set forth two noteworthy facts:

1) It is risky to drink tap water; and

2) Bottled water is no safer than tap water.

In light of those facts, it becomes clear that only residents of a home with some type of purification system can be assured of access to pure and good-tasting water.

Growing numbers of homeowners have elected to install a device that has an activated carbon filter. When combined with ion exchange and micron filtration, those filters can bring the number of unwanted chemicals in tap water down to an acceptable level.

When a home tap does not deliver water that has contains dangerous chemicals, then the homeowner can sleep soundly at night. That homeowner knows that residents and guests in the filter-equipped home can refresh themselves with clean and safe drinking water.