Many know that drinking water is essential to maintaining good health, but does anyone ever stop to think about the quality of the water?
In today’s health-conscious society, most people prefer to drink bottled water because of its supposedly higher quality, and Cal State Long Beach students are no exception.
“I wouldn’t drink tap water from Long Beach,” said Alicia Everetts, a senior biology/physiology and anthropology major. “It’s not very clean.”
Like Everetts, more and more students on campus are purchasing water bottles or carrying around refillable bottles of their own.
Beach Water sales at the Nugget, Beach Hut and Beach Carts grew by 2,513 bottles last month – a 72 percent increase from September 2006 sales, according to 49er Shops, Inc. The number of Beach Waters sold at all Dining Service locations totaled 22,243 bottles last month.
Like most other students, Robert Hernandez, a senior political science major, said he prefers bottled water to tap. However, several studies published in recent years have questioned whether bottled water is safer to drink than tap.
While not many students know of these reports, Hernandez said he remembers hearing a few years ago that bottled water is actually the same quality as tap water.
According to the Sierra Club, an environmental protection organization, “Coca-Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina are tap water coming from places like Queens, N.Y., and Jacksonville, Fla., with some additional treatment.”
The concern is that bottled water is not as well-monitored as tap water. The Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for public drinking water, while the Food and Drug Administration sets the standards for bottled water based on EPA criteria, according to the EPA website. However, neither agency guarantees the quality of bottled water.
Researchers and consumers have also expressed worry over possible bacterial contamination that could develop from reusing plastic bottles.
“Used water battles become susceptible to developing dangerous levels of fungi and mold when they are refilled, cleaned improperly, or sit at room temperature for too long,” reported one study conducted by the University of Calgary in Canada in 2002.
To prevent such bacterial contamination, the University of Minnesota Extension Service recommends cleaning used water bottles thoroughly with soap and hot water and allowing them to air-dry completely before reuse.
The most recent water bottle scare claims that the plastic used to make the bottles leaches dangerous chemicals into the water, which could cause cancer.
Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is the plastic of choice for most bottled beverages because of its durability, translucent quality and ability to hold both hot and cold liquids without leaking, according to the American Chemistry Council.
Circulating rumors have claimed that PET contains contaminants such as bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that mimics estrogen, and diethylhydroxylamine (DEHA), an additive used to make some plastics more flexible, according to the ACC.
However, recent research conducted by the ACC and the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) has shown that these claims are simply not true.
“Contrary to this hoax, PET bottles are not made with DEHA,” one ACC website claims.
“Bisphenol A is not used in the production of PET material, nor is it used as a chemical building block for any of the materials used in the manufacture of PET,” said a report released last month by NAPCOR.
The report also dismissed rumors that PET leaches dangerous chemicals and were urban legends, lack scientific support and were spread by e-mails.
“I think the research shows that it is perfectly safe to drink bottled water,” said Tom Gufrey, a chemistry professor at CSULB.
While it is important to remain a conscious consumer, no one should be afraid to drink water.
“Unless you are drinking really bad water, you are more likely to suffer from the adverse effects of dehydration than from the minuscule amounts of chemical contaminants present in your water supply,” said Dr. Rolf Halden, a professor and researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
