What bottled water is best for consumtion 3

[frankiee]

Hi
Sorry for such a base question I am about to ask.
Actually this does not involve work but my own personal life. But the info I gain I could take back to work with me.
I wish to know what is good water to drink. Out of bottles.
Is distilled the best for human consumption
Is reverse osmosis the best for human consumption
Is spring water the best for human consuption?

Thanks

 

[francesca]

Plastic is gas permeable, so if you leave any plastic bottle of water in a contaminated room, your water gets contaminated.

Water out of the faucet is just fine for drinking. Cities spend millions of dollars every year ensuring so and proving it to the EPA.

 

[GarySCWSVI]

Since you are "Marine/Ocean" I assume you want bottled water for drinking while on a boat. RO water would be the best choice. It would taste better as the primary reason.

Gary Schreiber, CWS VI
The Purolite Co.

 

[cousink]

Distilled water may be super pure, but it will lack many of the mineral resources your body has grown to depend on absorbing from water.

You might just fill up some reclaimed plastic bottles with water from your home tap. A lot of that water originates from "springs". In most locales in the USA it's as clean as any water you'll get from buying a bottle off the shelf. What's most important, despite the apparent expense in treating it, tapwater is cheaper than bottled, too, fivefold.

 

[DMcGrath]

Have a look at a label from the major bottled water brands (Aquafina and Dasani) and it states something to the effect of "...from a municipal source..." Yeah, its just tapwater that has been filtered, ozonated, or what have you. The residual chlorine in tapwater (removed during the "purification process ") is there for a reason.

 

[DMcGrath]

I forgot to ask, perhaps someone else knows....Are there any regulatory requirements for bottled water akin to those for tapwater? I have never heard of any - who knows what is really in that bottle?

 

[frankiee]

Thanks for the replies
DMcGrath
I am in Ontario Canada and read that there are tests for over a hundered things in municipal source but in bottles water there are only 3 things checked for by the Food and Drug administration.
I get my water from Water Depot where they take municipal water and run it thru RO an thier filters and UV so I get a feeling of security.
Not long a go in a nearby town (Walkerton Ontario) a bunch of people died from bad town water
Then I have a person tell me that there should be minerals in the drinking water and that RO takes out the minerals and the water leeched out my body minerals.
Hard to know what to believe.
Thanks for the comments

 

[quark]

The idea of body minerals leaching out while consuming distilled water is already debunked. You should note that cells do die and new cells are generated regularly. Various tests conducted on human upto 30 ppm TDS showed no adverse effects ( the study, of which link I lost, was not carried below 30ppm). Further, if your food intake is balanced, you need not worry about the mineral intake via water.

You can consume water as long as it meets the WHO specifications of potable water. There are about 150 parameters but we check about 10 parameters, in industry. The recent issue of fatality in US, as I read in news papers, was due to E-Coli.

Some of the main parameters (but not limited to ) are TDS, pH, Total Hardness, Total Alkalinity, TVC (and specific pathogens), Fluorides, Heavy Metals and Radio Active Elements. Minerals in water gives you taste if they are in reasonable proportions.

Anything that is naturally pure is better. Second comes RO water because it is economic to produce.

 

[thewellguy]

IN the states if bottles water is bottled and sold in the same state, it is up to the state to regulate. This means in most states there is no regulation. Once the bottles cross state lines it is up to the fed to regulate. Last I heard there ws less then ten people in that dept to regulate the entire country.

 

[sbush]

Although Coke's Desani and Pepsi's Aquafina come from municipal sources, they are highly purified at the bottling plant by reverse osmosis and several other high-purity techniques and then minerals are added back to the product for taste and consistency. If water comes from a regulated municipal source, then it is safe for human consumption. However, even though it is safe, some people might not like the taste or worry about possible contamination from external sources such as corroding pipe. For me, I drink tapwater at home, but when I'm working out of town and know I will be consuming a lot of water, I will purchase distilled water and mix it with bagged ice. Distilled water is cheaper than other bottled waters like Desani or Aquafina. There is nothing harmful about consuming distilled water. Humans get almost all of the necessary minerals from food, not water.

S. Bush

http://www.water-eg.com

 

[bimr]

Buying bottled water and using raw ice makes little sense as the ice may have been contaminated.

Here are the regulations and model codes for bottled water.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/botwatr.html

http://www.bottledwater.org/public/pdf/IBWA05ModelCode_Mar2.pdf

http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Bi-Ca/Bottled-Water.html

 

[stanier]

During the Crytosperidium and guiardia scare in Sydney many of the bottled water products were tested. It was safer to drink tap water.

Remember that your immune system actually benefits from being stressed occassionally. You will build up a natural immunity if you expose yourself.

I travel extensively throughout SE Asia and I drink tap water. My family and friends drink from bottles. I usually suffer less from gastric problems than they do!

If you do live that extra week from spending a mountain of money on Coke or Pepsi bottled water, who cares? If you spent the money on having a good time you would be streets a head. Get a life.

Geoffrey D Stone FIMechE C.Eng;FIEAust CP Eng

http://www.waterhammer.bigblog.com.au

 

[JLSeagull]

I use tap water most of the time and buy spring water as a beverage. Spring water tastes better than tap water.

Many codes and standards apply to various tests. I am not aware of the mandatory testing reguluations. I have three different gallon bottles of spring water in the kitchen right now. They list the source. Some of the springs are in Texas where I reside. One spring is in Arkansas. The latter likely places it in interstate commerce.

In the US, tap water is very safe. This is not so true internationally. I doubt that tap water is a health problem in Canada.

 

[bimr]

Burying one's head in the sand is not going to prevent someone from becoming ill from drinking contaminated water.

Over 3 million people annually die from avoidable water-related diseases. Dirty water from unsanitary conditions is the leading cause of death of children in Asia, and globally claims the life of one child every 30 seconds.

The most important thing insofar as bottled water goes is that the water has been properly disinfected, packaged, adn sealed. It is not going to make much difference whether the water is distilled, been through a reverse osmosis process, or came from a spring.

 

[kchayfie]

In terms of Canadian water, I suspect the most important criteria for bottled water selection is taste. There will be enough regulation in place to make sure all the other requirements are covered. Here in the north west UK, my prefered brand is the stuff in the tap. Down south where the water is harder, I prefer the cheapest bottle. In developing countries I opt for sealed bottles, preferably from the fridge. The other things, RO vs distilled etc aren't so important.

 

[sbush]

The original question is asking which is the BEST (of three types) for human consumption. Setting taste aside, if the goal is to drink the purest water, of the three types mentioned, then the purest is distilled.

S. Bush

http://www.water-eg.com

 

[kchayfie]

that assumes that BEST = purest

 

[sbush]

Yes. From Frankiee's second post, I'm assuming purity is the concern. Mineral content relates to taste. The regulatory standards set maximum limits on inorganic, organic, bacteria, and particles. Their is no limit on minimum amount of contaminants.

S. Bush

http://www.water-eg.com

 

[kchayfie]

personally, I think the best water is contaminated with barley, hops and a small measure of alcohol but that's a topic for another thread!

 

[civilperson]

Distilled water can dissolve the enamel on your teeth.