The first thing we want to look at in this article in what the experts think about tap water and bottled water. Then we will try to see what conclusions we can make before we decide where our best water might come from.

Okay, let the first salvo in the water wars be fired at tap water...there are those who believe it is not safe to drink.

Well, here are what the experts think. What do you think?

1. "Each day, millions of Americans turn on their taps and get water that exceeds the legal limit for dangerous contaminants." This was a quote from a special report from USA Today titled, "How Safe Is Your Water?"

2. "Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is as much as 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine." This was from the U.S. Council of Environmental Quality

3. The "Ralph Nader Research Group" stated, "U.S. drinking water contains more than 2,100 toxic chemicals that can cause cancer."

4. The report, "Weed Killers by the Glass", published by The Environmental Working Group, stated, "Weed killers were found in the tap water of 28 out of 29 cities tested."

5. According to research done by the Associated Press, 41,000,000 Americans, or more, have a wide variety of pharmaceutical drugs in their drinking water.

This array of drugs included: antibiotics, sex hormones; drugs for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, mental illness, heart problems, anxiety, epilepsy, cancer, and more.

Well, it looks like in the future we may not have to leave our homes to have our prescriptions filled. So, let's look at the bottled stuff.

1. One university study, commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund, concluded the difference between some bottled water and tap water is that, "...it is distributed in bottles rather than pipes."

2. "Bottled water standards in the US are at least as protective as those for tap water". (Can't you feel the love!) This was from Stephen Kay, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association.

3. "Bottled water", which is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, "is not tested as thoroughly or as frequently as tap water", which is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Jon Coifman, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

4. "Toxic chemicals can be released into the environment during the manufacture and disposal of bottles," was another conclusion of The World Wildlife study that also said the bottle water industry uses 1.5 million TONS of plastic yearly.

5. In the bottled water industry suppliers often use reverse osmosis filter systems to purify the water. In this process the water is stripped of all minerals and it becomes slightly acidic. This water is thought by some health experts to be dangerous to drink on a regular basis since:

(a) Water normally has a neutral pH and acidic water it will naturally try to return to that state. If we drink this water it will neutralize itself by taking calcium from our bones, teeth or cells. Also,

(b) Cancer seems to need an acidic environment to live, consequently, carcinogenist feel drinking this water may promote an increased risk of cancer.

The cheapest bottled water I could find in the store today was priced at $4.83 on a per gallon basis, more expensive than gasoline, and all they have to do is bottle it and take it to the stores. No paying for government leases, oil exploration, expensive drilling, shipping to a refinery, refining, etc.

Not bad (if you're in the BW business)!

It is clear that our tap water is very dangerous and we now know bottled water regulations are even less strict than for tap water, and the IBWA itself confirms that 25% of their bottlers use water right from the tap.

So, what can we conclude?

1. We can say tap water is very harmful to consume and we have no real assurance bottled water is any better.

2. Also, bottle water is 18,000 times more expensive than tap water, it causes evironmental concerns at landfills with the plastic bottles, and it is not recommened for consumption if it exists in a chemically pure state.

We would be at an impass at this point if these two were our only options. In that case we would have no way to win in the water wars.

Lucky for us, there is another solution. We can take responsibility for our drinking water and bottle our own water, in reusable containers, using our own home water filters.