What is Helium

Is tap water or spring water better for your health?

Results so far:

Spring		73%	209 votes	Total: 285 votes
Tap		27%	76 votes	Total: 285 votes

Spring

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Spring water is better than tap water because of its content. Spring water comes from natural occurring sources. Spring water contains minerals that are abundant in the earth and beneficial to the body. Depending on the source of the spring water, it can have healing properties, unlike tap water. I have known of people taking large empty jugs to draw spring water from natural sources that are made available to the general public at no price. Some spring water, because of its heavy concentration of mineral salts is used in spas and resorts.

Spring water is tested regularly for its content. Tap water, though tested, has additional amounts of chlorine and other chemicals with which it is treated. Tap water, in a sense, is recycled water. At the reservoir the water goes through several filtration processes before it is pronounced fit for human consumption. There are allowable amounts of fecal matter in that kind of water. A scientist once pointed out that the amount of feces allowed in tap water is minuscule, but nevertheless when you drink tap water, these small particles are contained therein. That is enough to make a person reject drinking it up front. In a city 18 miles away from where I live, the tap water is extremely hard. Lime deposits are evident in the pots and pans when the water is used. Also a warning was issued to avoid giving it to babies under one years old because of its potential to cause Blue Baby Disease.
Anyone drinking tap water should be knowledgeable of what they are getting.

Tap water is available in most big cities and this makes it free to all. Spring water, however, usually comes with a cost per bottle. This can add up, but at least the drinkers usually like its taste in preference to tap water. In some larger cities, the amounts of chlorine and other chemicals are very strong and pronounced.

There is another kind of water which was not mentioned in this question. It is steam distilled water. It contains no chemicals, no minerals, and nothing which will conflict with any body processes. It has a rather bland taste and usually is used for babies' formulas or in steam irons. I personally prefer drinking this kind of water and have grown use to its taste over the years. Steam distilled water or just plain distilled water can be bought at most grocery stores.

If there is a question of which water is best, it would be my vote to say it is distilled water. However, because of the lack of minerals in that kind of water, it is advisable to take a mineral supplement to insure that you are getting them in your body. Spring water is next. It affords you the luxury of getting minerals in your body. Minerals are necessary for all body functions, and without them, you invite sickness. Next is tap water. Tap water is last because of the chemicals used in its preparation. Most hardware stores sell water purifiers. These can be attached to your faucet to filter out more harmful substances from tap water.

Water is a vital part of our lives, making up over 70% of our makeup. Putting the best kind of water into our bodies will insure us better health, clearer minds, and internal cleansing. Periodically investigate the water source that is coming through your tap. Listen out for water alerts, and always keep an open mind. It's your body- it's your life.

Learn more about this author, Toni Doswell.
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Tap

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by Jenna Kellam

I know many of us, myself included, occasionally drink bottled water. We may think it's convenient, it's healthy, it's safer than tap water but this isn't all true. Bottled water is detrimental to our environment, our health, and certainly doesn't help our pocketbooks either. My message is simple: Drink tap water.

What is in bottled water? Recently the Coca-Cola Company has taken some heat for the contents of it's Dasani water bottles. The picture on the bottle led many consumers to believe the bottles were filled with spring water while in fact it was filled with purified tap water. If you have a purifier on your kitchen faucet, you've been drinking Dasani water for free. All About Water, an online resource, has said "An estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle-sometimes further treated, sometimes not."

You may be thinking about the recent tap water scare. Many news agencies reported stories about contaminates in tap water. The small print in many of those stories announced that the minimal amount of pharmaceuticals and other contaminants found in the public water system posed no threat to our health.

Now think about this. Tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), while bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Known for the strict standards the EPA tests tap water four times as often as the FDA tests bottled water. Loopholes in the FDA's policies allow water that is bottled and sold in the same state to go virtually unregulated. So we don't even know what is in many of those bottles?

The National Resources Defense Council concluded, "While much tap water is indeed risky, having compared available data, we conclude that there is no assurance that bottled water is any safer than tap water."

Bottled water costs 1,000 times more to the consumer than tap water. In 2002, Americans paid 7.7 billion for bottled water. At the brink of a recession, think how far money saved from drinking tap water can go. Money can be used to reduce the carbon footprints left by the bottling companies. And, money is not the only resource wasted by manufacturing bottled water. Twice the amount of water bottled is wasted in the processing of plastic bottles. The fuel that it costs to produce, transport, and then store refrigerated bottle water in one year is enough fuel to heat 100,000 this winter. The damage from the harmful emissions being released into the air during this process can not be reversed.

To add to the big-foot sized carbon foot print the bottled water industry is already leaving us, 90% of empty water bottles are not recycled; according to the Container Recycling Institute, that amounts to 30 million bottles a day. One plastic bottle takes 1,000 years to bio-degrade.

If you think you can taste the difference between bottled water and tap water, I challenge you to take a taste test. Fill up one cup with bottled water and the other with tap, put them in the fridge until they are the same temperature and test yourself. I recently played this game with 12 friends, two brands of bottled water and tap water; less than half were able to correctly guess the tap water. In a taste test done by Good Morning America, New York City tap water was chosen as the favorite over many popular brands of bottled water.

Save money, save the environment and go for the surely safe choice. Recycle your water bottles and go for the tap!

Sources:
All About Water, http://www.allaboutw ater.org/environment .html
Drink Tap, http://www.drinktap. org/consumerdnn/

Learn more about this author, Jenna Kellam.
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