We arrived in Manhattan at 6:00 but at the Church of Saint Francis Xavier at about 6:15pm. It was cold and I had no idea what to expect. My dad and I walked up the many steps to the giant double doors. Our field work involved selling reusable water bottles for the organization “Take Back the Tap.” Take Back the Tap is an organization that promotes the use of reusable water bottles to help the environment by reducing the amount of plastic waste caused by water bottles.
When we got inside, Daniela told me that the was over and we were sent back home. I was a little disappointed as I did show up at one of the prescribed times but the other volunteers of the organization “Tapped” had already began to pack up the reusable water bottles and there was nothing for me to do. In spite of all that, it inspired new ideas for this blogpost.
According to a survey done in the documentary Flow: For Love of Water, People have it in their minds that somehow, bottled water is better than tap water. However, in actuality, In America, it is the opposite. To start off, it is not proven to be safer like companies might advertise. For instance, Smart Water advertises that it is better for your brain by adding electrolytes when in actuality, without exercise, no positive benefits have been shown. Tap water is strictly regulated but bottled water is not as tightly regulated. Even if it happens to contain something hazardous, bottled water companies do not have to publish the hazards for public information so they can essentially put whatever they want in the water and no one would be the wiser. Most water companies dress up the bottles to make them look attractive and make it expensive and people just assume that it is somehow better than free tap water. But, in reality, 48% of bottled water is just unfiltered or untreated tap water.
This information had a moderate effect on me. I realized how much the actual plastic bottles had to do with plastic pollution. Not only do some of the chemicals in the plastic seep into the water, specifically contaminating it. According to the article “” by a contributor to The Mayo Clinic website BPAn() is a chemical used to coat the insides of some plastic containers including water bottles. Research has shown that this chemical can seep out of the container and contaminate the water. Research also shows that this chemical can have some deleterious health effects such as effects on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. I have to mention here that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not banned the use of BPA, stating that “Our interpretation of the results of the present study is that BPA in the ‘low dose’ region…did not produce effects in the evaluated endpoints that differ from normal background biological variation.” –Barry Delclos and co-authors. However, other scientists are saying that the results are inconclusive and the debates still continue in the scientific world. If there is any doubt on whether or not it could cause health defects, I think we should not be using it.
http://www.dietspotlight.com/smart-water-review/
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11193/7-reasons-to-never-drink-bottled-water-again.html
http://bodyunburdened.com/why-bottled-water-is-unhealthy-environmentally-unfriendly-a-joke/
St. Francis Xavier – 46 West 16th Street, NYC – May 2008
