Almost all of us are consumers of bottled water, but what do we know about the quality of this water?
The term "mineral water" was coined in Europe, which is abundant with water. In humid areas the water tends to contain a small amount of dissolved minerals: the salt is simply spread over a large volume. Some of these minerals such as magnesium, calcium, iodine and more are beneficial for health. Spring water that was relatively rich in minerals was, therefore, very popular. Until the beginning of the 20th century, traveling to "healing springs" for immersion and drinking mineral water was a trend among those who could afford it. Settlements near such springs became kit and vacation sites and some of them, such as the Czech town of Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) which was honored to host 2 Zionist congresses, are tourist sites to this day.
Today, when food is diverse enough to provide the mineral intake that our bodies need, the popularity of bottled water is an unsolved puzzle. When consumers are asked why they are willing to pay money for a product that is offered for free, the answers are divided between those who prefer the taste of the mineral water and those who fear contamination from the tap water.
We will start with a debate about taste and smell, is bottled water tastier?
In blind tasting experiments, it turns out, the advantage of the mineral water disappeared. For example, tap water from New York was preferred by 45% of participants in a tasting survey, while the famous "Evian" water was preferred by only 12%. In a television investigative program, diners at a high-end restaurant agreed to pay $7 for a bottle of L'eau Du Robinet (tap water in French) filled from the kitchen faucet and rejected the taste of the same water in a carafe. The drinking experience cannot be boiled down to chemical composition and laboratory tests; Water that we paid for and took the trouble to carry home will make us laugh more than the simple water that the municipal officials pour into the faucet in the kitchen sink [1].
But the main reason for the boom in the bottled water market is the fear of contamination in tap water. It is a fear rooted in a long history of epidemics transmitted by drinking water. Already the prophet Elisha begins his chain of miracles when he takes care of a mikvah of water and thus stops a deadly plague (1854 Kings chapter 127). This knowledge was forgotten until a cholera epidemic in 20 changed medical science and on that occasion produced the idea of bottled water. When the disease claimed XNUMX lives, the doctor Dr. John Snow discovered the connection between all the patients - a public water pump on Broad Street in London from which polluted water flowed in sewage from the River Thames. This investigation is considered the birth of the modern science of epidemics - epidemiology. From then until the beginning of the XNUMXth century, bottled water from springs known to be clean was the only way to drink safely.
In 1913, chlorine disinfection was introduced in the USA and the tap water in the cities finally became safe to drink. This achievement combined with the improvement of water and sewage infrastructure led to the decline of the bottled water market for most of the last century. But it turns out that it is difficult to overcome old fears, especially when there are those who can benefit from them. In the XNUMXs, entrepreneurs began to take advantage of pollution events or concerns about water quality and revived the marketing of mineral water.
As mentioned, there is no laboratory or health evidence for the superiority of mineral water. Water pollution events receive extensive media coverage and it turns out that such events will always work in favor of the bottle marketers. Pollution in tap water brings more consumers to the bottle shelves in supermarkets, while similar problems with mineral water, such as the benzene that was discovered in Freya water last decade, lead people to switch to competitors' bottles but not to return to tap water. What remains from pollution incidents, whether they are in the cheap tap or in the expensive bottles, is public awareness that water is a dangerous business and therefore worth paying for. In our country, most of the water comes from groundwater anyway (the mountain aquifer and the coastal aquifer) and the water of the Sea of Galilee is not poor in minerals either, so the rush to buy bottles comes almost only from the lack of trust in what the authorities provide us.
An expensive product whose only justification for marketing is quality assurance could be expected to meet stricter standards than what just flows from the tap. Concentrations of some dissolved substances appear on the packaging of the bottles: laboratory evidence of the quality of the water we buy. But what can really be learned from this list?
8 substances are detailed in small letters: calcium, magnesium, dicarbons, sodium, potassium, nitrates, sulfurs and chloride. In addition, the "lift value" of the water is also indicated. Strangely and disturbingly, only one piece of information - the concentration of nitrates (nitrates) - is related to what interests the consumer: how clean the water is.
Calcium and magnesium, for example, are souvenirs left by the rock in the water that flowed through it. These metals damage the foaming ability of soap and form scale in the heating boiler and in the washing machine - very few people use mineral water for bathing or washing. For those who buy a bottle of water at a kiosk or a water tank for the office, these data are meaningless. The chloride is the same form of the chlorine atom in which it is found in table salt: the amount we get in water is negligible compared to what we get in food. Chloride concentrations are important for those who want to irrigate sensitive crops such as citrus or avocado: needless to say, no gardener irrigates his land with this product, so this number does not convey to the consumer either. Similarly, the concentrations of sodium, potassium and sulfur are unimportant to the consumer and the "dicarbons" are simply the result of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolving in water.
And what, on the other hand, is not written on the packaging? For example bacteria.
The "naturalness" of the mineral water is expressed in the fact that it does not contain any additives such as the chlorine compounds used to kill bacteria in the tap water, the bacterial quality (the number of bacteria and the type of bacteria in the bottle) reflects, therefore, the hygiene until the moment the cork is closed and sealed. Anyone going to third world countries is warned not to consume tap water and prefer bottled mineral water. The priority of mineral water over tap water in terms of cleanliness is almost an axiom, which is why the results of studies such as that of a group of researchers in Brazil [2] who compared mineral water from 20-liter containers at workplaces with tap water taken from the faucet closest to that container are so surprising. It turns out that the tainted tap water was slightly cleaner than the "virgin" tank water. When water from those bottles was tested when it comes from the tap installed in the tank, the worst results were obtained: faecal coliform, a bacteria that the standard absolutely prohibits from being found in water, was detected in about 3% of the tap water samples, in about 5% of the water samples taken from mineral water tanks before installation and in more than 10% of the water glasses taken from the same facility A way in which people usually pour their own drinking water. Tap water contains an amount of chlorine that will allow you to treat contamination that will occur after it is poured through a pipe or poured into a pitcher, but mineral water lacks this protection. From a product that is sensitive to spoilage, you can expect a clear instruction on how to store it after opening the closure. But while on every box of cheese or bottle of ketchup the consumer is instructed how to store it after opening, the label on the water bottle only indicates an expiration date.
Another data that is missing from the list on the packaging is precisely the types of contamination that can be feared in water that spends a long time in a plastic bottle. The typical bottle for mineral water is made of a material called by the acronym PET and in the language of chemists polyethylene terephthalate. The raw material of this plastic is a derivative of phthalic acid: a family of substances against which suspicious evidence has been accumulating in recent years. It should be emphasized that the material after the polymerization process (the creation of the plastic) is not dangerous, but laboratory tests show that a certain amount of phthalate compounds leak into the water and furthermore: biological activity of those substances can be shown. The phthalate is problematic because it disrupts the activity of hormones, including sex hormones. Snails grown in water from PET bottles showed more activity of "pro verbo" than their friends that were grown in an aquarium filled with water in glass bottles, a clear evidence of a hormonal disorder [3]. Leonard Lex, who recently published an article warning against mineral water contamination originating from the packaging materials, points to a series of parameters that may affect the degree of leakage of chemicals from the bottle into the water: the exact composition, the method of production, the percentage of recycled plastic and the method of storage [4]. The mineral water companies do not share information about the bottle with us, the consumers. For example, we do not know of another substance that may leak into the water: the element antimony. This substance is used to speed up the reaction to create the PET and studies have shown that this substance also disrupts hormonal activity. The levels of antimony in the mineral water increase as the time spent in the bottle increases, but the amount of the substance that leaks within six months or a year varies greatly between different bottles[5]. In Japan, where some manufacturers use titanium instead of antimony for the same purpose, they found mineral water bottles in which the antimony concentration did not exceed that of tap water. It goes without saying that the information on the manufacturing method of the bottle and the degree of leakage of antimony and other substances is not available to the consumer.
In conclusion: even if it makes no sense to purchase a more expensive product with the same quality, the mineral water is here and it seems that they will stay with us. But those who rake in capital by virtue of a direct or implied promise of improved quality should openly present the quality of the product. Mineral water is exposed to a different type of contamination than tap water and the information for the consumer must reflect the relevant parameters for those who use the water for drinking: is the water bacteriologically and chemically clean when we drink it (and not just "at the factory gate"), how should it be handled after opening and what is the quality The packaging materials.
Dr. Yoram Sorek is the chief scientist of the "Israel Water Charter" (AR) association, which promotes the establishment of a standard for the quality of mineral water.
1. Miguel F. Doria, Bottled water versus tap water: understanding consumers' preferences, Journal of Water and Health (2006)
2. Zamberlan da Silva, ME, et al., Comparison of the bacteriological quality of tap water and bottled mineral water. Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health (2008)
3. Martin Wagner & Jörg Oehlmann, Endocrine disruptors in bottled mineral water: total estrogenic burden and migration from plastic bottles, Environ Sci Pollut Res (2009)
4. Leonard Sax, Polyethylene Terephthalate May Yield Endocrine Disruptors, Environmental Health Perspectives (2010)
5. WILLIAMSHOTYK & MICHAELKRACHLER, Contamination of Bottled Waters with Antimony Leaching from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Increases upon Storage, Environ. Sci. Technol. (2007)
26 תגובות
The point is not the bacteria in the tap water, it's that the tap water is no longer natural water, it's treated, therefore it lacks very important minerals like iron and magnesium and I don't know what else and you didn't say anything about that
There are chemicals like fluoride. Yes, the substance that the government claims is good for your teeth is absorbed into your body in every possible way through the shower, through the food you eat in restaurants, through the fruits and vegetables that are washed before you buy, and it doesn't matter if you consume water from a bottle or from the tap. There are scientific studies that all unanimously say that the substance is toxic. In a certain dose because of its properties and biologically acting in the body, so the first thing that needs to be done is for the state to stop putting fluoride in the drinking water and supervise factories that do not discharge substances of this or that into the rivers, the sea or the ground because it ends up in your drinking water.
It won't happen between us because we are not a cohesive people, we don't know how to make a demonstration that will paralyze the country like the Europeans until then, cheers!!!
There are a variety of water "bars" on the market today starting at NIS 600 that offer filtration with charcoal filters and provide cold or boiled water (in case there is concern about water contamination). Some of them even have UV lamps to kill bacteria like Tami4. There really is no reason to buy mineral water and create pollution with all those plastic bottles.
As for mineral water, Israel's water has a very high concentration of nitrates, which can cause colon cancer and other diseases...
For the benefit of those who do not know what nitrates are = nitrates are compounds of nitrogen and oxygen, and are one of the main pollutants of groundwater. The source of nitrates is mainly in agricultural fertilizers, various types of waste, and animal excrement. High nitrate concentrations are especially dangerous for children.
It is natural that in a country with little water sources, the percentage of nitrates in the water will be higher than in a country where there is abundant water...
That's why I buy mineral water made in Italy and don't drink Eden or Ein Gedi water
Bottom line, what is better or what should you drink??? In our house, we carry bottles all day long. You would happily stop drinking mineral water. But is it really safe to drink from the tap?! Especially whole have a nasty taste!
Also, I usually buy mineral water from Italy. It seems to me that even if they sell me water from the tap in Italy in a bottle, it will be of better quality than the mineral water produced in the country.
Comments to Mr. Yoram Sorek's article from 19.5.10:
The article discusses the question of whether consuming "mineral water" as drinking water is better than drinking tap water.
The writer's conclusion is that tap water is preferable.
And my comments.
1. Today, drinking "mineral water" does not come because of its better taste or because of the content of healthy substances in it. The main reasons for drinking this water are the hope and belief that it does not contain harmful substances to the extent present in tap water.
Unfortunately, there is no thorough and in-depth testing of the water either in tap water or in "mineral water".
The reality of unwanted substances such as toxic metals, hormones, drugs, parts of plastic materials is not tested, nor of the reality of desirable substances such as trace elements essential for health.
Mr. Sorek quite rightly asks for a broad and comprehensive breakdown of the content of bottled water, but this breakdown is perhaps more important for tap water used as drinking water for a wider population.
2. Mr. Sorek states that the food is varied enough to satisfy the consumption of trace elements. Information from all over the enlightened world indicates the decline in the nutritional value of agricultural crops. Cultivation lands are depleted. Other essential trace elements are missing. Fertilization in the barren is done with a phosphate fertilizer that contains in the barren nitrogen and phosphorus.
Hence it is possible that the "mineral water" contains trace elements that are missing in food.
But as mentioned, unfortunately there are no adequate tests that will clarify the matter.
3. Sources of drinking water according to Mr. Sorek are mainly groundwater. It was like that in the past.
Today things have changed.
According to information from 2008, a third of the drinking water comes from the Sea of Galilee. The rest comes from groundwater as the share of desalinated water in drinking water consumption is increasing.
Today the water sector is managed (since 2000) by the "Water Authority" which is an independent body that does not depend on government budgeting.
All water sources are fed into one system with options for separation according to needs.
4. And a few comments regarding each of the sources of drinking water that reaches the tap.
Kinneret water. Runoff water flows into the Sea of Galilee, bringing with it pesticides, fertilizers and dairy waste.
The water is brought from the "Sapir" site to the "Eshkol" site. There, add to the water in the treatment pool
Aluminum sulfate to settle the particles that cause the water to be cloudy.
Aluminum is a toxic element and is suspected of causing Alzheimer's disease.
Despite this, there is no test to determine its presence and concentration in water.
The sludge that sinks to the bottom of the pool (and is occasionally removed) contains toxic substances and is not suitable for any use.
Hypochlorite is added to the water flowing from the investment pond for purification from bacteria.
It is worth remembering that a bacterium is a living organism just like us, so hypochlorite may also harm a person.
"Fluorosilicic acid for drinking water treatment" is also added.
This is according to an official document of "Fertilizers and Chemical Materials". The material is waste from the phosphate industry.
According to the above document, the substance added to the water also contains arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, nickel, lead and more.
These substances are toxic and dangerous and there is no dispute about that.
Controversy exists regarding the benefit that fluorosilicic acid brings.
Many studies point to the substance as harmful to all body systems and also to the teeth.
Despite public protests, the state insists on adding it to the water.
Today the state buys this addition, probably in Spain.
groundwater. Both the coastal aquifer and the mountain aquifer are contaminated with various substances.
Irrigation with leachate and injecting it into the ground in order to add water to the aquifer does not improve the quality of the groundwater.
About 60% of the wells in the coastal aquifer do not meet the American water quality standards.
Desalinated water. It is still unclear how drinking desalinated water affects human health as a result of regular use
For years.
5. Before the water reaches us, about 10 chemical substances are added to it according to the recommendation of an "expert committee of
Chemicals for drinking water", a fact that is not known to Zabur.
6. Mr. Sorek is right about the concern about the plastic bottles, but the tap water also comes to us in plastic pipes, although
A different material than the water bottles, but there is no guarantee that parts of this plastic do not end up in our tap water.
7. The fact that tap water is free of bacteria is not necessarily a credit. It is possible that the level of harmful substances in the water is
high and prevents the growth of many bacteria.
8. The US health services recommended in all media to avoid preparing baby food with tap water.
From all of the above, it seems to me that a sweeping recommendation to use tap water is excessive.
It is appropriate to repeat and recommend comprehensive quality tests: trace elements, organic harmful substances, medicines
and hormones, heavy and toxic metals. Only based on qualified and reliable results will it be possible to choose these waters
more suitable for drinking.
Sincerely,
Dr. Aviva Zak-Ditzian DMD
Do plastic bottles accumulate germs?
This is one of the sources of the fluoride conspiracy theory. What do you think? Do you think it's serious?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufInl6cR91k
Bottled water is a problem in itself, but it is also a sign of another, much bigger problem...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oG6hBkc2JE&feature=player_embedded
Dr. Shurk,
In my opinion, there are several other elements that should be considered:
1. Contamination of tap water as a result of their passage. An extreme example from history is the deadly use of lead to conduct water. In the modern world, I am not at all sure that the various metal and plastic tubes do not cause a similar effect (although of course much more hidden, perhaps hidden like the PET effect you mentioned).
I have a hard time trusting miles of old pipes, different pumps, and even household plumbing and faucets.
2. Pollution of groundwater from which the tap water is pumped as a result of various hazards - for example gas stations, or industrial sewage.
At the same time, I definitely agree that standards should be established that allow tap water to be compared to bottled water in light of the various pollution elements.
You should watch this: what happens to people who drink water from a bottle
http://www.healthology.com/once_daily/once_daily.aspx?cValue=od_fluoride_0100&fValue=od3&bValue=medicalnewstoday
Worth watching on the subject of water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8-PgI5XDic&feature=player_embedded#!
Water from the tap can even be identified by the smell and not only by the salty and chlorine taste. What about Aqua Nava? What is the quality of their water?
joins Persisting and adding a request for a review of the fluoridation conspiracy. I am particularly interested in the sources of the Israeli version of the conspiracy theory. It must be entertaining and interesting.
Thank you for a reasoned, clear, and even, heaven forbid, article! Accompanied by place mirrors.
I would love to read another article, this time on the subject of water filters of various kinds, descaling removers, UV lamps and other wonders of technology. Some of these solutions are certainly helpful, some are harmful, and it seems that the public lacks an informative infrastructure for making informed decisions.
Regarding the quality of the water in the faucets, I can testify from personal experience that only pipe restoration works carried out by the Tel Aviv Municipality on the street where I live, and then replacing sections of the domestic pipes, finally resulted in good water quality, without rust, sand, and aftertastes. And they allowed me, for the first time in a long time, to drink tap water again.
point.
You are a foolish Hasidic (or drinker?), do you have any idea what they water the one you believe in?
Read the protocol of the committee to update the drinking water quality regulations - Adin Committee
We have less stringent standards than other countries in the world.
http://www.israelwater.org.il/vaadat-adin/melia9.doc
The best is to vary. I drink filtered water as well as bottled mineral water from different companies, so if there is a certain "trouble" in a certain channel, it does not reach me in full.
Dear Dr. Shurk,
What is the degree of cleanliness of the acid? Isn't the fact that the acid is a byproduct of the phosphate industry enough to understand that there are traces of heavy metals?
I fully share the problems of mineral water, but the conservatism (at best) of the Ministry of Health personnel bothers me no less.
I am not a party to conspiracies regarding fluoridation, but I am very disturbed by the mental fixation of the supporters of fluoridation. If you want to fight tooth decay, then there is more than enough to do besides forcing people to drink fluoride.
"The findings: very large amounts of fluoride in the bones, especially among those suffering from osteoporosis and people suffering from poor kidney function. In light of the findings of the study, water fluoridation was stopped throughout the country.
Fractures as a result of fluoride accumulation in bones is not the only trouble. There are studies that attribute fluorides, even in low doses, to causing bone cancer, especially among boys aged 19-9. Office three to seven, in areas where fluoridation was carried out compared to other areas.
Water fluoridation is prohibited in Denmark. From a review of a large number of scientific sources conducted by the Danish National Environmental Protection Agency, it appears that prolonged exposure to small amounts of fluoride resulted in a decrease in kidney functions.
In Sweden, fluoridation was rejected based on the recommendation of a special committee on the subject, which, among other things, justified its opposition on the basis of a lack of sufficient knowledge about the effect of fluoride in continuous exposure.
The Netherlands banned the fluoridation of its drinking water, after a group of doctors presented data on fluoride's damage to the nervous system and the digestive system. "
From an article by Mrs. Lottie Silberman and the Industrial Health and Toxicology Council.
http://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=973
I personally do not buy mineral water because of the facts you mentioned in the article and I completely agree with them, but I will use water purifiers because I am afraid of fluoridation
I won't go near my faucet as long as they are fluoridated - forget it,
To me it is no less than a crime
http://tinyurl.com/37actcv
And besides - I don't trust a government/municipal authority to take care of my health after me
Reading the above survey:
An analysis of 20 million tap water quality tests (from water utilities) over the last five years in the US was undertaken by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and found 316 contaminants in water provided for public consumption. Of those contaminants, only 114 of them have enforceable standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
http://tinyurl.com/32mx5au
I believe in cucumber
Amit: Aren't you tired of recycling legends of the American right from the 60s about the communist plot to poison the water?
Fluorosilicic acid breaks down completely in water to give a little sand and fluoride: the same ion that is found naturally in many places in the same concentrations.
I have spent many hours searching for even one scientific publication that would show any connection between fluoridation and an increase in the concentration of heavy metals in water and I have not found one: and this despite the fact that this strange claim has been tested over and over again.
The argument about a "medicine" is not worthy of consideration: the water itself is also a medicine and of course almost any marker dissolved in it may be considered a medicine if you really want to be smart.
I wonder if the strange scare campaign is not funded by the mineral water marketers
The only problem with drinking water in Israel is that it is deliberately and by law polluted with fluorosilicic acid which is produced from waste from chemical plants (the phosphate industry) and therefore also contains residues of heavy metals.
In the best case, this is a collective "medicine" (no doctor would dare to recommend, for example, putting even vitamins in tap water - what to do, everyone has their own dosage) what's more, the water is for drinking and not for rinsing the mouth.
I don't know which is better: drinking fluoridated water, or paying an exorbitant price for bottled water and carrying it from the supermarket like our ancestors carried it from the well.
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%9C%D7%A8%D7%AA_%D7%9E%D7%99-%D7%A9%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%99%D7%94
Instead of bottled water it is better to install a cheap and tasty water filter, I have a water filter installed in the kitchen, I don't know if it is allowed to write the name of the manufacturer.
With God's help, they will already build the desalination facilities properly and then we can stop all the criminal pumping of the mineral water... by the way... the water wells of the Sharon area on the coastal plain contain the tastiest water in the country... and much cleaner than the "water of Eden"
And this without mentioning the expressiveness of commercial mining of a resource that should be available to the general public for free and without any added value (packaging a product that does not need packaging is not an added value).
The same mineral water that goes into a bottle is mineral water that does not reach the tap.