Wal-Mart bottled water contaminated

[RebootedCorpse]

Fucking Wal-Mart.

A New Dig at Bottled Water

By Jack Healy

It’s not a great time to be in the bottled-water business.

More companies and consumers are turning back to using tap water and filters. Environmental groups have gone on the offensive against those millions of used plastic bottles. And though numbers from industry marketers are still projecting growth, independent measures suggest that the market for bottled water is nearly, well, saturated. For example, as reported yesterday, double-digit drops in sales of Aquafina and Propel waters helped dragged down quarterly earnings at PepsiCo.

On top of all this, a new report today finds a “surprising array of chemical contaminants” in 10 brands of bottled water, including byproducts of chlorination, small amounts of caffeine and acetaminophen, and fertilizer residue. The report, by the Environmental Working Group, a public-health watchdog organization based in Washington, said that contaminant levels in some water samples exceeded the industry’s own voluntary standards. Further, the group said, levels of contaminants found in bottles of Sam’s Choice water — a Wal-Mart brand — that were purchased in California exceeded that state’s standards.

Not surprisingly, the International Bottled Water Association challenged the survey’s conclusions, calling them “alarmist” and the product of “sensationalized science.” The association’s president, Joe Doss, said in a statement: “In general, the report is based on the faulty premise that if any substance is present in a bottled water product, even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set, then it’s a health concern.”

And Wal-Mart said its own studies had found no illegal levels of contaminants, according to the Associated Press.

[shoelaceless]

There's an international bottled water association?

[Laughingmonkey23]

Wow that make me never want to drink bottled water ever agian.

[costello]

If McCain is elected president, will that avatar get you some unwanted publicity?

[woljed]

I drink your water, Walmart. I drink it up. (Not snarky)

[Maxwell]

If McCain is elected president, will that avatar get you some unwanted publicity?

That is not McCain
It is his doppelganger
Senator McBush

[dEnny!]

I don't like Sam's Choice water. I buy Dasani, but reuse my bottles and recycle.

I do think my wife and I could save $5 every 2-3 weeks if we didn't buy bottled water, but it is convenient.

[stevapalooza]

I get my water free from the tap. It hasn't killed me yet. I'm no scientist but my theory is it's perfectly safe to drink. oh and it's free.

[Donal DeLay]

I get my water free from the tap. It hasn't killed me yet. I'm no scientist but my theory is it's perfectly safe to drink. oh and it's free. I wish people would stop saying that.

it's not free. You pay for your tap water.

[Ashwin Pande]

I don't like Sam's Choice water. I buy Dasani, but reuse my bottles and recycle.

I do think my wife and I could save $5 every 2-3 weeks if we didn't buy bottled water, but it is convenient.

How is buying bottled water more convenient than drinking from the tap using a filter or even installing a water purifier?

[Donal DeLay]

How is buying bottled water more convenient than drinking from the tap using a filter or even installing a water purifier?

Jesus, Ashwin, how do you expect the man to save money if he has to go out and shop for a tapwater filter?

Use your head for once! :no:

[Thomas Mauer]

I get my water free from the tap. It hasn't killed me yet. I'm no scientist but my theory is it's perfectly safe to drink. oh and it's free.

There are studies over here year in year out that show tap water is the cleanest you can get because it's subject to the strictest oversight. Should be the same in the US, shouldn't it?

[Pia Guerra]

There are studies over here year in year out that show tap water is the cleanest you can get because it's subject to the strictest oversight. Should be the same in the US, shouldn't it?

So why does California tap water taste so goddamn hideous?

[shoelaceless]

So why does California tap water taste so goddamn hideous?

Northern California's tap water is fine.

[Pia Guerra]

Northern California's tap water is fine.

It's slightly better but still pretty blurgh.

[Ashwin Pande]

There are studies over here year in year out that show tap water is the cleanest you can get because it's subject to the strictest oversight. Should be the same in the US, shouldn't it?

Not in India it's not!

We don't dare drink tap water. Most families either use a filter or a water purifier of some sort. Tap Water straight from the tap is a no-no.

[Amos Moses]

I will never understand the bottled water thing. Best way to make money ever though. I'm going to start selling bottled air.

[Donal DeLay]

I will never understand the bottled water thing. Best way to make money ever though. I'm going to start selling bottled air. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_bar

[Ashwin Pande]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_bar

I've been to one. It was so expensive me and my friends just went inside.. took a stroll around and left.

Completely insane concept.

[Amos Moses]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_bar

Goddamn Japanese and their ideas.

[Matthew Brown]

Our tap water smells bad and tastes metaly. I've been drinking Sam's Choice bottled water from Wal-Mart because of this... o_O

[CougarTrace]

Well, to be fair, the water supposedly is only as contaminated as regular tap water.

And there are benefits to tap water - fluoride being one of them.

At least thats what I saw on TV today.

[Kingsumo]

The chemicals in the water do not surprise me at all.

Unless it's bottled from a "municipal source" (aka tap water), the it is essential filtered spring or well water, and with all of the chemicals and crap seeping into the water tables, it was bound to happen.

[Ultimate Lurker]

Get a filter and a nalgene.

Also, my apartments pay for the water, so it's not "free" per say, but I pay the same whether I use it or not.

If you want great bottled water, get ozarka, it's pure spring, not tap crap.

[CougarTrace]

or get a fridge with a built in filter :)

[Mark4myself]

All I drink is water and since I'm always on the road going to work (2 hours one way) or on my way back from work, I always drink bottled water. Since all I ever drink is water I have discovered that you can tell the difference between tap and bottled. I can't explain why it tastes different but tap usually tastes "flatter" if that makes sense. The kicker to this is the fact that my wife purchased some Sam's Choice water and when I drank it I asked her if she had filled an empty from the sink because it tasted like tap. She told me she thought it did too but it was new. Now I read this about their water and it all makes sense. That's why the taste was off.

I want to make it clear I'm not saying tap water is crap. It all depends on where its coming from. I'm just leary of tap water due to a bad experience. I was rinsing a glass at a friend's house in the city, and the more I rinsed it, the milk would not leave the glass. After about 3 minutes I realized the milk was gone, it was the water that was white. If tap water be white, Gary not be drinking it. Now the germophobe that lives in my ear whispers about all kinds of other nasty things that could be in there. Things that aren't as obvious as turning it white. So it's tainted to me.

[Stark Raving]

Works like a charm.


http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/starkraving_photo/1231111212.jpg

[Kody]

Huh, I had no idea so many of you drank bottled water, I figured most of you were drinking KoolAid.


:D

[Whip]

There are studies over here year in year out that show tap water is the cleanest you can get because it's subject to the strictest oversight. Should be the same in the US, shouldn't it?


SO not the case in the Dominican Republic. And in the apartment building/projects I lived in in NJ growing up, where the water was cloudy and you had to let it sit for a while for it to "clear" and had a metallic taste. Fuck that shit. Filter, plz.

[Pat Shatner]

I heard this story on the radio yesterday, but they said that the level of contaminants is completely harmless. So maybe this really is kind of "alarmist" as the bottled water king said.

Either way, though, I still think buying bottled water is totally asinine. Just get a Nalgene bottle and a filter. They're not that expensive.