Distilling the Truth About Bottled Water

Since the tap water scares of the early 1990s, intense marketing campaigns have convinced consumers that bottled water is the only safe alternative to the tap. But do-it-yourself options like home water filtration systems are generally more convenient and less expensive than bottled water, which costs consumers $22 billion per year.
A closer look into the water that glints so refreshingly within its plastic bottle reveals some startling facts: According to the National Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of all bottled water is nothing more than local tap water, transferred from the pipe to the plastic with little or no treatment.
Despite this, the average cost of bottled water is 1,000 times that of tap water. These high prices should suggest higher filtration standards for bottled water. However, the Food and Drug Administration sets the same or lower standards for bottled water that the Environmental Protection Agency sets for tap water.
According to the National Resources Defense Council, this leads to about 22 percent of all bottled water having below-standard levels of contaminants such as E. coli and fecal coliform.
So what's the alternative when neither taps nor bottles are good enough? At Filters Fast (www.filtersfast.com) we recommend incorporating a water filtration system into the home. Consumers not only save money, they actually gain control over the quality of their own water.
Families using home water filtration systems enjoy water that is free of most dangerous contaminants, while the plastics used in water bottles can leach harmful carcinogens into water after just a few months on the shelf. After only one day of being open, those plastic bottles become bacteria factories.
Plastic water bottles also harm the environment. The Earth Policy Institute reports that 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year, 86 percent of which is never recycled.
At Filters Fast, we provide our clients with a huge array of options, from refrigerator filters, to under-sink filters, to whole-house filtration systems. We urge consumers not to become overwhelmed or deterred by the variety of systems available. We have experts that can answer your questions and help you select the right system to meet your needs.