Miami Tap Water

[Keneke]

In Swift, it says that this bottled water is just tap water. But, doesn't carbon filtration or one of those other methods remove the majority of chlorine as well? So, perhaps it's not really tap water, but it comes from tap. I'm not making much of a point, but I did want to clarify it a little.

So, doesn't tap water have more treatments in it than bottled water?

[wantobe]

My wife, the ever-practicle German, buys bottled water despite my pleadings. But she has a point; the bottled water tastes better than our normal tap water.

We have a filter that makes the tap water taste better, but the bottles are easier for my wife to carry to work with her. She would simply refill the bottels, but after a few days they tend to start smelling a little funky.

To me, there is a place for bottled water and it's nothing to be necessarily ashamed of (we used a lot of it in Desert Storm). I just wish they wouldn't make such ridiculous claims about how "pristine" the water is.

[DVFinn]

Tap water varies from place to place, just as bottled water varies from brand to brand. There is nothing to base the assumption on that bottled water is any cleaner than tap water.

When I lived in CT we had good tap water and we drank it. Now we're in MS and the well water from the tap has a bit of an unpleasent odor, and the county occasionaly lists "Boil Water" notices, so we switched to bottled water for drinking.

We buy the distilled stuff by the gallon for $.79 because it's the cheapest.

Keneke, I don't know what you meant by treatments exactly, so apologize if I'm misunderstanding your point. I'm new to this forum so I don't know where different members stand on things.
If bottled water is just bottled from the tap somewhere then it would have no fewer "treatments." If it comes from a spring or other such natural source then it may have fewer "treatments" but since those treatments are processes such as filtering, checking for harmful chemical content and steriling I would say that it's not a good selling point. I'll take the treated stuff, cuz that chlorine taste is just a reminder that I'm not going to die of cholera today.

[bjornart]

Originally posted by Keneke
In Swift, it says that this bottled water is just tap water. But, doesn't carbon filtration or one of those other methods remove the majority of chlorine as well? So, perhaps it's not really tap water, but it comes from tap. I'm not making much of a point, but I did want to clarify it a little.

So, doesn't tap water have more treatments in it than bottled water?

It's not 'tap water' as in 'has less/more impurities, genes, quants or chemicals'. It's 'tap water' as in 'the big print on the lable gives the impression that it's from the Mount Bedoobee Glacier in the Himalayas but it's actually from the Miami municipal water supply'.

[Trebuchet]

We use bottled water a good deal, especially at our second home which is on a community water system. The water's safe, but doesn't taste very good. Of course, we just get "Kirkland" (Costco) water -- hard to understand paying extra for water from France or Miami water pretending to be from elsewhere.
Still, I don't see what makes this worth Randi's attention. It's just marketing. Sleazy and misleading, perhaps, but legal and far from paranormal. There's lots of more important stuff out there worthy of JR's attention.

BTW, Kirkland water says it's Reverse Osmosis filtered and has minerals added for taste. Distilled water can be really flat.

[Hand Bent Spoon]

Drinking distilled water can adversely affect your health, if you're not careful. Normally water carries minerals such as calcium and magnesium, and probably a few others with positive health effects. Not to mention the flouride added by many areas (depending upon the natural flouride concentration in the area's water). Distilled tastes flat, and carries none of these nutrients.

I was skeptical of the Brita filters, so when I got one I tested the tap water that went into it before filtration using a dissolved solids tester. Then I used the tester to measure the dissolved solids of that water after it had gone through filtration, and sure enough 90% of the dissolved solids had been removed. That figure would creep back up with use over time until it was time to change the filter, roughly 3-4 weeks later. So Brita filters do work, though their effect is aesthetics improvement, rather than making the water any safer (as reading the insert told me).

[xouper]

Hand Bent Spoon: Drinking distilled water can adversely affect your health, if you're not careful.May I ask, do you have a cite for that?

[DVFinn]

Still, I don't see what makes this worth Randi's attention. It's just marketing. Sleazy and misleading, perhaps, but legal and far from paranormal. There's lots of more important stuff out there worthy of JR's attention


I disagree. The root of skepticism is applying rational and critical thinking, to everything. People believing that bottled water is automatically superior to to tap water is an example of the same incomplete though processes that lead to beliefs in aliens psychics and dieties.

Any area where people make foolish decisions based on a failure to apply basic reason should be of interest.

quote:
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Hand Bent Spoon: Drinking distilled water can adversely affect your health, if you're not careful.
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May I ask, do you have a cite for that?

I would also be interested.

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Hand Bent Spoon
Drinking distilled water can adversely affect your health, if you're not careful.
Here's something from the American Dental Association on fluoride:

Bottled Water, Home Water Treatment Systems, and Fluoride Exposure (http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/topics/bottledh2o.asp)


The majority of bottled waters on the market do not contain optimal levels (0.7-1.2 ppm) of fluoride. And, some types of home water treatment systems can reduce the fluoride levels in water supplies potentially decreasing the decay-preventive effects of optimally fluoridated water.
I wouldn't agree with the inclusion of calcium & magnesium, you should get plenty of those in a healthy balanced diet.

[BTox]

Originally posted by xouper
May I ask, do you have a cite for that?

He's not going to find one. Of course, the kooks that sell Penta water make the opposite claim as their product is deionized.

[DVFinn]

The flouride issue is valid, but the flouride levels in the well water here are negligable anyway. I depend on my toothpaste and a flouride rinse for my son.

For other minerals I try to keep a sufficient diet and take a multivitamin. Overall I don't thing drining distilled water is going to have any negative impact.

[Aoidoi]

I believe the only potential health issue with distilled water would be due to diffusion. If you get (near) perfectly pure water when you drink it pretty much everything in your cells that can pass through the cell membrance will start leaving the cells to equalize the concentrations inside and out. If you drink enough distilled water this could potentially remove enough necessary minerals from cells to be dangerous. IIRC it would take drinking a whole lot of distilled water to manage it.

This is the theory I recall from HS Bio, anyway. Not in a position to search for more info at the moment. Also not sure if this is what was being referred to above, as commercial bottled water generally is not pure enough to do it even if it was distilled at one point... if nothing else particles leech in from the plastic bottles.

[xouper]

Aoidoi: I believe the only potential health issue with distilled water would be due to diffusion.Same question for you - got a cite for that?

This is the theory I recall from HS Bio, anyway. Not in a position to search for more info at the moment. If you're not sure, then why post it?

[BTox]

Originally posted by Aoidoi
I believe the only potential health issue with distilled water would be due to diffusion. If you get (near) perfectly pure water when you drink it pretty much everything in your cells that can pass through the cell membrance will start leaving the cells to equalize the concentrations inside and out. If you drink enough distilled water this could potentially remove enough necessary minerals from cells to be dangerous. IIRC it would take drinking a whole lot of distilled water to manage it.

This is only a problem in vitro, i.e. if you place cells in distilled/deionized water. When you drink DI water, it mixes with saliva and stomach fluids, which are concentrated with dissolved ions. No problem at all.

[DrMatt]

Originally posted by xouper
May I ask, do you have a cite for that?

If you drink any kind of water in huge quantities fast enough, you'll drown. Long before then, your body will give you a tummy ache trying to warn you to stop.