There's an interesting interview with Laura Moser of Slate Magazine about tap and bottled water in The Washington Post. The following is but an excerpt:
New York: Isn't a lot of bottled water really just tap water?
Laura Moser: You're absolutely right -- about a third of all bottled water comes straight from our municipal water facilities. You may have read something about the Aquafina stink last month -- Pepsi has agreed to label its top-selling water more clearly, so that consumers know exactly what they're buying. Often, but not always, the repackaged tap goes through additional purification.
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Washington: About the leaching involved in reusable No. 7 bottles -- if you don't let the water sit in bottles in the sun, is it going to harm you? The use of plastic bottles for drinks needs to be reexamined -- let's look at recycling options, bottle refund options, etc.
Laura Moser: There's still way too much we don't yet know about the leaching in No. 7 bottles. The subject has stirred great controversy in recent years, as polycarbonate is the main plastic used in the manufacture of baby bottles, and Bisphenol A (the chemical that polycarbonate may or may not leach) poses particular risks to young children. The industry continues to claim that No. 7 is completely safe, but I'm not convinced yet. I don't think that keeping your bottle out of the sun will improve its safety, but I completely agree that re-examining our dependence on disposable bottles is urgently necessary.
Another point that comes out in the interview is that our recycling efforts are failing nationwide. We have diminishing rates of plastic recycling being done. That's astonishing to me. We must encourage legislation that requires deposits and returns on plastic bottles. It is unconscionable to simply throw 5 million plastic bottles in the earth every day.
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