As gross as hoarders are, I do hate how incredibly wasteful our society is. It's really disgusting at some of the things that people do - like, people who will ONLY drink bottled water. That's gotta be the most disgusting thing I can think of. There are nearly a billion people on the planet without access to safe drinking water and you're bitching about the taste of your tap water,(which is INCREDIBLY safe) so you BUY tap water in a bottle? Yes, most bottled water is from a municipal source.

who the hell refills their drinking bottles from a random water fountain? bleh

I drink bottled water when I want it, otherwise I use Brita filtered water. She's right that Aquafina and Dasani (with a lot of the smaller brands) are just bottled tap water. I'm not sure the soda industry is the one that created the bottled water boom, because as I remember Coke and Pepsi were late to market.

And, if Cleveland really did "tests" that determined their tap water to taste better than Fiji water, then I call straight up shenanigans. Fiji water is delicious. I don't know what they do to it, but it's about as good as water can get.

>> ^acidSpine:
How did you manage to write so much yet make no valid points? What's wrong with the "anti-bottled water movement"?

How did you read all of what I wrote and miss the very first sentence? What's wrong with the anti-bottled water movement? Like I said, they do have some valid arguments, but they're starting to go overboard and acting like annoying elitist twats. Comparing people that drink bottled water to smoking, come the fuck on.

I also gave several good reasons why bottled water is perfectly acceptable. If you're not at home where you can drink tap water, like on a road trip and need to stop for food and drink. Whatever you buy to drink from a convenient store is going to come in a bottle. Why is it OK to buy a soda in a bottle, but if you buy water in a bottle you're looked down?

I can think of a few reasons for bottled water to exist. Primary reason I buy it is when I work outside or at different locations, you can be reasonably sure the water isn't going to make you sick.

I've been to jobs where the water coming out of the hose on their house smelled like rotten eggs, made me queasy just from the smell. And if you work anywhere commercial you can't even be reasonably sure that the water they are pumping through their building is even considered drinkable unless it comes straight from a drinking fountain. One place actually had it's own system to mix liquid fertilizer into the water supply and pumping it through the building...one day it'd be pure water, one day it'd be a blue-green color. Had to use water for the equipment and to clean up, but I never trust drinking water at any location because I'd rather not get a stomach bug from it..or worse.

As for places where the water is SUPPOSED to be drinkable, like public parks, schools, etc. Drinking from water fountains when you watch people spit on it openly, or look like they are trying to deep throat the water nozzle, or have their kids who were just playing with dog shit run up and rub their unwashed hands all over it. Then imagine what people do that drinking fountain/sink/whatever when it's dark out and people can't easily see them.

I know my reasons for drinking bottled water...they don't necessarily exclude tap water. But it's easier to buy the bottles, stick em in a cooler with ice and be good for the rest of the day. Used to do the big water cooler setup, fill it up from a known clean tap water source..wash it out every day (it got pretty nasty in just a days period from the ice, dirty hands, and just dirt/dust). Then you had to worry about cups or something else to drink out of.......and after having a few co-workers who were just nasty. IE fill up their cup without even attempting to clean or cover their dirty hands while they did it...or drinking out of other people's cups because they wouldn't pay attention. I stopped doing that.

So, if your reason for drinking bottled water is because you don't trust other people not to get ass matter and worse all over the handles and spout of water spigots, etc....then I understand.

I found some videos by the ADA that also promote the use of fluoride. Although they also don't show any empirical data, they advocate seeking additional fluoride intake if you drink bottled water that is not fluoridated or if you live in an area that is not fluoridated.

http://www.ada.org/public/media/videos/minute/index.asp#fluoridation

One strange arugument they pose is that fluoride is a naturally occurring element in water. I find this strange because there are many naturally occurring elements in water that I wouldn't want to increase my intake of.. such as arsenic,lead,magnesium and radon. While fluoride is helping my teeth, I wonder if it could be harming my other organs and bones based on all the products that use fluoridated water and the fluoride in the public water supply (it seems like it might be too easy to inadvertently take in too much). After all, it's more toxic than lead - which has been banned in the use of products. I've also learned that if the fluoride is unrefined from it's capture process in fertilizer plant smoke stacks then it also contains lead and radons. This doesn't necessarily make me refute the use of mass non-consentual fluoridation. It only makes me question the quality of fluoride that is being used.

Yes this is all true. I have been on well water before, and with all the chances or arsenic and lead poison... I opted for bottled water. Actually I opted for Dr. Pepper. I think the real motive behind things such as this is to for people to realize that if they are drinking bottle water because it makes them part of the elite... well they are full of bullshit. Bottled water can of course be practical and sometimes the best option. If you are drinking water like a fine wine.. well that's bizarre. Maybe water tasting is something I am ignorant to.

Everyone has some sort of agenda. As long as we have our own ideas and logic playing in our part we should, for the most part, be fine.

Your thoughts were nice to see! Thanks for writing them down.

In reply to this comment by Nithern:
While Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller have a nice show, they do present an agenda. In this case, it sounds like they have yours and my best interests at heart. They didnt get paid enough from the bottle water lobbyists in washington under Obama's Administration. Under Bushs? Well, that president actually reduced funding for the EPA, as well as, reduce inspectors and testers on all US consumer goods for its eight years. So all those disease scares from meats, dog food, and such, is largely due to the republican's idea of what constitutes "correct testing for safety and health".

I myself drink bottled water largely due to circumstances Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller do not wish to talk about: reality. My pump is not city water. It has rust, iron (unrelated to the rust), and generally does have a 'unique' taste to it. While its ok, to bathe or rinse dishs in (the heated dishwasher removes the bad stuff from th surface of the plates....hopefully), its not suitable for human consumption.

Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller, did state their survey was unscientific. It was also, untruthful. How many people in their video, did they show, that stated they liked the taste of the bottled water, over the tap water? That's right, "none". That is why, this is merely shoveling an agenda, and not a public service anouncement, for the general citizenry of the states.

While Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller have a nice show, they do present an agenda. In this case, it sounds like they have yours and my best interests at heart. They didnt get paid enough from the bottle water lobbyists in washington under Obama's Administration. Under Bushs? Well, that president actually reduced funding for the EPA, as well as, reduce inspectors and testers on all US consumer goods for its eight years. So all those disease scares from meats, dog food, and such, is largely due to the republican's idea of what constitutes "correct testing for safety and health".

I myself drink bottled water largely due to circumstances Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller do not wish to talk about: reality. My pump is not city water. It has rust, iron (unrelated to the rust), and generally does have a 'unique' taste to it. While its ok, to bathe or rinse dishs in (the heated dishwasher removes the bad stuff from th surface of the plates....hopefully), its not suitable for human consumption.

Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller, did state their survey was unscientific. It was also, untruthful. How many people in their video, did they show, that stated they liked the taste of the bottled water, over the tap water? That's right, "none". That is why, this is merely shoveling an agenda, and not a public service anouncement, for the general citizenry of the states.

I drink bottled water for the convenience, not the faggotry. Tesco value water serves my purposes well at 17p for 2 litres.

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never safety-tested fluoride for ingestion. Yet, the FDA recently OK'd cavity-preventing claims on fluoridated bottled water labels, giving Americans a false sense of security about the safety and effectiveness of drinking bottled water with fluoride added.

Sodium fluoride was sold before FDA safety and effectiveness testing laws were enacted in 1938 and 1962, respectively. So fluoride was exempt from scrutiny, or "grandfathered in," without any FDA human or animal studies. "The premise was that all pre-1938 drugs were considered safe," according to FDA correspondence.

Sodium fluoride was already sold pre-1938 but not as a decay preventive. As strange as it sounds, it commonly sold as a rat poison. The FDA has no information on the medical uses of fluoride before 1938
__

http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/
http://rense.com/general74/fflu.htm
http://fluoridealert.org/fluoridation.htm
http://www.fluoridealert.org/50-reasons.htm
http://fluoridealert.org/fluoride-facts.htm