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> Nestlé Wants to Sell You Both Sugary Snacks and Diabetes Pills ...and they want to "own" the water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_pb6r8VNWk https://www.

• fche 11y ago
  Of course water is not a "human right" - else whom can I sue for being thirsty?
  • newjersey 11y ago
    This is the worst offense. The iPodization of water is real. I try to avoid buying water whenever I can. If people like us who have a voice will just quietly switch to bottled water or very expensive home filtration, then we will have failed our civic duty.
    • maxaf 11y ago
      Almost everywhere I travel outside of NYC the question pops up: is tap water safe to drink? New York is notoriously proud of and vocal about this local amenity. Achieving a universal standard in this area would go a long way towards putting a significant dent in the bottled water scam.
      • kidmenot 11y ago
        > is tap water safe to drink? As someone who lives across the pond, it never ceases to amaze me that this question needs to be asked at all. Is tap water safe to drink? I wouldn't take "no" as an answer unless I'm in some remote third-world country that has known issues with the availability of drinking water. And yet... Not saying tap water here tastes great everywhere (far from that), but you can be pretty sure it won't cause you any physical harm.
        • mseebach 11y ago
          Good for you, but this is what the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers has to say about Italy: > Drinking water is chlorinated and has no ill effect on the local population. However, some strains of e. coli (naturally occurring bacteria found in your gastro-intestinal system) may be present in very small concentrations in the local water supply. Some local strains are different than those that you may be used to, and may cause diarrhea in travellers since immunity is not developed as a result of short-term exposure. Using bottled water for the first few weeks will help you adjust and decrease the chance of traveller's diarrhea. https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-overview https://www.iamat.org/country/italy/risk/food-water-safety-o... Poking around, the same warning is in place for Spain and Portugal. I always get bottled water when travelling, although I tend to get the cheap local or store brand water. A few euros is really cheap anti-diarrhea insurance, and it tastes a lot better than chlorinated water, too.
          • lmm 11y ago
            Sure, that's the same pretty much anywhere - the water is safe when you're used to it, when moving you're better off giving yourself a couple of weeks to adjust.
          • kidmenot 11y ago
            This is not a case of "good for you", it's just that I find it sad that locals of a developed country have to choose to drink bottled water over tap water because the latter could harm their health. That being said, for travelers it sure might take a while to adjust to local conditions. I never had such problems when traveling to Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Slovenia, but I do understand that each body copes differently with things it's not used to.
      • elthran 11y ago
        By outside of NYC do you mean just elsewhere in the USA? I didn't realize the situation was that bad in the USA, outside of places such as Flint. I'm from the UK, and this question never comes up anywhere in the country (I'm aware of the scale differences we're talking about)- if you travel anywhere, you can drink the tap water.
        • newjersey 11y ago
          Yes. I'm ashamed to admit that we don't fluoridate our water across the Hudson river. While I'll never admit this in person in front of a New Yorker, water does taste better in the city. This is not to take away from the fact that water here is mostly safe to drink. There was an incident earlier this year with a broken mains flooding Hoboken which left a little bit to be desired in terms of communication. However, overall I'm fairly satisfied with the water here. I imagine it is the same idiot antivaxxers who don't want fluoride in water but I haven't looked into it.
          • goldbrick 11y ago
            I wouldn't be so quick to call others idiots. Fluoridation has absolutely nothing to do with taste. The reason NYC's water tastes better than NJ's is simply that it comes from a different source.
        • nommm-nommm 11y ago
          The water is the USA is highly regulated and safe to drink. Flint was a dramatic outlier which resulted in criminal charges for those involved. Municipal water supply has stricter standards than bottled water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Drinking_Water_Act
        • stuaxo 11y ago
          @newjersey In the UK we only fouridate a few areas, mostly it's only good old chlorine that we add. Maps: http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-%20The%20Extent%20of%20Fluoridation.pdf http://bfsweb.org/onemillion/09%20One%20in%20a%20Million%20-...
• return0 11y ago
  "Brawndo, the thirst mutilator"
• Broken_Hippo 11y ago
  That was my first thought when I saw the headline. Water is a human need. All that out, however, I do actually agree with some of what is being done. I'd seriously prefer to eat a gummy candy than swallow a pill - no matter how small a pill is, I can only swallow one at a time. Patients with dementia get crushed medicines mixed with jelly or another substance here - and a pre-mixed solution of some sort would be easier on everyone. It'd be a bonus if we can have the extended release stuff in edible form. Children wouldn't mind taking medicines so much. I just wish it weren't what I consider evil people (from the water stuff) doing it.
  • brianwawok 11y ago
    People in the US already take about 10x too much medicine. Not sure making it easier is a good social goal.
    • techiferous 11y ago
      Agreed. Some health problems are reversed by making healthy diet and lifestyle changes. If your body is unhealthy because you eat too much sugar and refined carbs, and you take a pill for that, you now have two problems.
      • Broken_Hippo 11y ago
        Like I said before - that is a different problem. People need to have enough money to eat well without sacrificing electricity. Plus they need transportation or nearby grocery stores with affordable prices... in addition to the time and ability to cook at home. How, exactly, does making needed medications help with any of those issues? I seriously don't think people that are sick need to suffer to take their medicines, especially since a good number of sicknesses are not because of an unhealthy lifestyle. In the case of children, they have no control over that in any case.
    • Broken_Hippo 11y ago
      I'm not sure it is that high, but doctors do tend to prescribe more instead of saying "no, you can't have the antibiotic for your cold". Part of this is a regulatory issue as well - I walk into a pharmacy here in Norway and you have to ask for some of the medicines, even though they are available without prescription. In the states it was different - basically no regulation. On top of the fact that medicine in the states is most definitely a consumer good paid for by the individual... in universal coverage, it is a bonus not to over-prescribe medicines and to make sure that those that need medication take care of themselves as they should so that costs don't go up - and people don't need more medication. Making medicines easier to take doesn't actually address any of this outside of making it slightly easier for those on medication to take it as they should so that their conditions don't get worse.
• piquadrat 11y ago
  Can we stop this "Nestlé thinks water isn't a human right" BS already? http://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/human-rights/answers/nestle-chairman-peter-brabeck-letmathe-believes-water-is-a-human-right http://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/human-rights/answers/nestle... I'm far from being a fan of Nestlé, but there are better arguments against their conduct than a single quote from the CEO years ago, misquoted and out of context.
  • ck2 11y ago
    They do think it is their right to buy publicly owned municipality water and then sell it back to the public. I mean with soda at least they are putting a few cents per gallon into it. There should be a truth-in-advertising law they makes the bottle labels say "filtered publicly owned water $1".
    • folli 11y ago
      In my opinion, the blaming is very one-sided. I mean what kind of municipality sells such rights to a private entity?
      • sobkas 11y ago
        The one that believes in trickle down economics!
      • nommm-nommm 11y ago
        Aquafina (Pepsi) and Desani (Coke) bottled water are municipal tap water that has been filtered. The source of the water is usually on the label.
      • tim333 11y ago
        The UK sold all it's water companies a while back. It sort of worked out but the bills went up.
    • dagw 11y ago
      There should be a truth-in-advertising law Aren't there? I'm sure I've seen the source of the water printed on the water bottles.