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• Sustainability Not Just about 'Saving the Earth' for Consumers According to a New Hartman Group Report
  PR Web, 5/29/2007
  Straight to the Source
  
  

Check out the new report from Food & Water Watch!

Take Back the Tap: Why Choosing Tap Water Over Bottled Water is Better for Your Health, Your Pocketbook, and the Environment

You can read the report here.

And pledge to Take Back the Tap here.

Did you know?

? Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands of times more than tap water. Compare $0.002 per gallon for most tap water to a range of $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon for bottled waters.

? The Food and Drug Administration regulates only the 30 to 40 percent of bottled water sold across state lines.

? The Environmental Protection Agency requires up to several hundred water tests per month by utility companies while the FDA requires only one water test per week by bottling companies.

? Nearly 40 percent of bottled water is simply filtered or treated tap water.

? U.S. plastic bottle production requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.

? About 86 percent of the empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled.

New Food & Water Watch Report Highlights Problems with Bottled Water

Washington, DC - Choosing tap water over bottled water is better for consumers' health, their pocketbooks, and the environment, according to a new report released today by Food & Water Watch. The report is being released on the heals of a San Francisco executive order banning the use of city funds for bottled water and a U.S. Conference of Mayors resolution to study problems with bottled water consumption.

In 2005, Americans spent $8.8 billion for almost 7.2 billion gallons of non-sparkling bottled water. Consumers drank even more in 2006, about 26 gallons per person. The bottled water industry spends billions on advertising that promises purity in a bottle while implying that tap water is somehow less safe, something that is simply not true, according to the report.

"Bottled water generally is no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water," said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. "Rather than buying into this myth of purity in a bottle, consumers should drink from the tap."

"Utilities all over the country spend millions of dollars to deliver clean, safe, affordable water right to the kitchen sink," said Susan Leal, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager. "Relying on bottles that use lots of energy to produce and are sometimes trucked or even flown thousands of miles and ultimately become a municipal solid waste problem just makes no sense," concluded Leal.

But just kicking the bottle in favor of the tap is not enough, says Food & Water Watch. Our nation's public water and sewer infrastructure is old and in the coming years will need billions of dollars of investment to maintain and further improve treatment, storage, and distribution. Each year we fall more than $20 billion short of what is needed to maintain our public water and sewage systems.

"It's time for Congress to establish a clean water trust fund that would give communities the financial help they need to invest in healthy and safe drinking water for every American and for future generations," Hauter said.

The United States maintains trust funds for highways, airports, and social security. Providing a dedicated funding stream for national priorities is sound public policy, explained Bill Holman, former executive director of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and former secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund has sparked innovative, community-based solutions to protect and restore water resources in North Carolina. A national clean water trust fund would provide similar benefits," said Holman.

Food & Water Watch is encouraging consumers to Take Back the Tap by choosing tap water over bottled water whenever possible and supporting increased funding for safe and affordable public tap water.

Scientists warn that the chemical, known as perchlorate, could cause thyroid deficiency in more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age.

This thyroid deficiency could damage the fetus of pregnant women, if left untreated. Perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in solid rocket fuel, has leaked from military bases and defense and aerospace contractors' plants in at least 22 states, contaminating drinking water for millions of Americans.

Despite massive complaints, defense contractors such as Kerr-McGee have done little or nothing to clean up the pollution. Perchlorate has also been widely detected in milk, lettuce, produce and other foods. In an alarming study, the CDC found perchlorate in the urine of every person tested. The OCA has mobilized thousands of organic consumers to pressure the EPA and government officials to begin a massive clean up of perchlorate for over a year.

Background: The Environmental Working Groups new report is an anlaysis of data originally released in 2005, when the National Academy of Sciences (NA released its long anticipated report on the human health effects of perchlorates, a byproduct of rocket fuel. Perchlorates, which are a common pollutant near military sites, have recently been found in the water at concerning levels in 22 states as well as in 93% of lettuce and milk. 97% of breast milk samples taken randomly from around the U.S. have tested positive for perchlorates.

The government funded NAS report reveals that perchlorates are roughly ten times more toxic to humans than the Department of Defense has been claiming. Perchlorates can inhibit thyroid function, cause birth defects and lower IQs, and are considered particularly dangerous to children.

The NAS report recommends human exposure at no more than .0007 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. The EPA has responded to the report by announcing a new drinking water standard of 24.5 ppb for perchlorate. This is bad news for military sites and rocket fuel plants around the country, including Henderson, Nevada, where EPA well monitoring has found perchlorates at a level 30,000 times higher than that. There are over 12,000 military sites in the U.S. that are used for training with live explosives.

The Pentagon is urging Congress to pass a new law that would allow the military to freely violate a host of environmental regulations. Entitled "The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative," the legislation would allow military facilities to ignore laws like the Clean Air Act. The Pentagon claims environmental regulations are a threat to national security, since they restrict the military.

To date, only one Senator has had the backbone to propose legislation that would hold the military (and other perchlorate polluters) responsible for this excessive pollution of the U.S. food and water supply.

Senator Feinstein (CA) has proposed legislation that would spend $200 million to identify and clean up perchlorate sources and provide grants for technologies to clean up existing contamination, while holding perchlorate polluters responsible for cleanup efforts.

"It is imperative that we reduce the perchlorate in our drinking water and protect Californians, especially pregnant women, the unborn, infants, and young children from this threat to their health," said Feinstein of the bill.