More Reason to Drinking Bottled Water
By Daniel Miessler on March 10th, 2008: Tagged as Environment
I took quite a bit of flak for my recent post where I defended my choice to drink bottled water when traveling.
My reason was simple: the quality of the water in random locations tends to be pretty bad — at least from a taste standpoint. And if it tastes that bad, e.g. like chlorine or sewage, then I figure there’s a decent chance it might not be good for me.
Well, as if on cue, the Associated Press just released a study today that show’s how there are trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in the tap water of many cities. Some highlights from a CNN article:
Officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.
Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
A sex hormone was detected in the drinking water of San Francisco, California.
The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.
Right. Nothing wrong with that good ol’ tap water, huh? Now combine that with varying nasty tastes in different cities’ hotels and restaurants.
I totally agree that drinking tap water is better from an ideal standpoint than drinking bottled water, but until they can filter as well as the high-end bottled water companies, and produce a consistently high quality product, I will be sticking with bottled water.: