Bottled Water Affects the Environment and Health
Buying a Reusable Water Bottle is Eco-Friendly and Less Toxic
May 27, 2009
Bottled water has become a fad in America over the past decade, but the process of producing and selling bottled water harms the environment. Rather than buying bottled water and disposing of the bottle, think about making the switch to a reusable bottle that can be filled up at home. Before buying a reusable bottle, consider how the plastic in that bottle could negatively affect your health.
Disposable Water Bottles are Bad for the Environment
Bottled water may seem cheap for the consumer, but its environmental cost is much higher. Tom Standage claims in his New York Times article "Bad to the Last Drop" published August 1, 2005 that bottled water harms the environment because "it is shipped at vast expense from one part of the world to another, is then kept refrigerated before sale, and causes huge numbers of plastic bottles to go into landfills."
Americans spent nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, but only 1 out of 5 water bottles is recycled and the remainder go to landfills according to Janet Raisa Fuller's Chicago Sun Times article "Landfill Regulators" printed April 19, 2007.
Plastic bottles not only pollute the environment after being thrown away, but they are also energy intensive to produce. Emily Arnold and Janet Larson of the Earth Policy Institute in their February 2, 2006 article "Bottled Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain" say, "Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year." The article also notes that 2.7 million tons of plastic are required to produce plastic water bottles each year for bottled water sold around the world.
Bisphenol A, A Potentially Harmful Chemical Found in Plastic Bottles
Bisphenol A, more commonly known as BPA, is found in polycarbonate, a type of plastic used in some types of plastic bottles. BPA can leak from the plastic bottle when the bottle is warm or if there is a crack in the bottle.
Numerous studies have been done to determine the health effects of ingesting BPA. In a September 16, 2008 article titled "BPA Study: Plastic chemical is unhealthy for children and other living things," published in Scientific American, scientists found BPA to be "associated with type 2 diabetes, angina, coronary heart disease, and heart attacks in adults with elevated levels of the chemical."
In the same article, Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council argues that "this new study cannot support a conclusion that bisphenol A causes any disease," because there is no evidence proving that BPA has directly caused those health problems.
Canada has banned baby bottles that contain BPA and four U.S. states, California, Maryland, Minnesota, and Michigan, are considering following in Canada's footsteps.
SIGG Aluminum Bottles are Alternatives to Plastic Bottles
Purchasing a reusable water bottle rather than buying disposable water bottles is an environmentally friendly option and could be better for your health. Plastic bottles that have a "7" on the bottom mean the bottle is made of polycarbonate that can leak BPA.
Aluminum water bottles may seem like a better solution to plastic bottles, but aluminum bottles can also contain a lining made of BPA. SIGG aluminum bottles made in Switzerland have been tested and proved that their lining does not have any detectable traces of BPA. In response to an inquiry from Lloyd Alter of TreeHugger printed in his article "Are SIGG Aluminum Bottles BPA Free?" Steve Wisik, CEO of SIGG, said testing around the world "has consistently shown SIGG aluminum bottles to have no presence of lead, phthalates, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), Bysphenol A (BPA), Bysphenol B (BPB) or any other chemicals which scientists have deemed as potentially harmful."
Tests conducted by an independent group and printed in Alter's article revealed the following results
- "Polycarbonate #7 plastic bottles - 71 ppb (parts per billion) were leached into the water.
- Chinese-made aluminum water bottles - 19 ppb
- New SIGG bottles - no detectable BPA
- Used SIGG bottles (2 years old) - no detectable BPA"
Even though BPA has not been conclusively proven to cause health problems, buying a non-toxic reusable bottle and filling it up with water from the tap or a home filter is a smart choice for the environment and is cheaper in the long-run than buying bottled water.
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