5 ms·
I work outside in 40C heat, in the sun for 8-10 hours a day; municipal water doesn't cut it for me. I've drank over 4 liters of water inside of an 8 hour period
by electromagnetic 16y ago
I work outside in 40C heat, in the sun for 8-10 hours a day; municipal water doesn't cut it for me. I've drank over 4 liters of water inside of an 8 hour period and have still needed to drink a minimum of a 1L gatorade to get hydrated enough to actually urinate. (Note: we're recommended to drink 1.2 liters in a day, and I can get through 5 liters in 1/3, it's advised to drink no more than 1 liter per hour* of heavy exercise or extreme heat exposure before you risk water intoxication)
Water Jug coolers simply don't cut it, even filled with ice cubes you'll only get until noon. I freeze 3 bottles of water, use ice packs and still my water can start getting warm on a hot sunny day.
Since I moved to an apartment building our water has actually been of good enough quality to filter. Where I used to live the water had an acrid taste, even filtered, and when we had a municipal waterline break it only made it worse (note because we had bottle water, we weren't all that concerned when we didn't have water for two days).
I use a bottle for a work week, refilling it with filtered water. I buy it for at most $3 (got it down to $2 before) a case containing ~4.6 gallons (35 x 500ml) and it's spring not municipal. Here in Canada it has to provide the source, has mineral contents on the label (my tap doesn't!) and as for meeting e.coli tests I find it rather moot considering the water is ozonated, and it's there whenever my water supply is down.
The facts about bottled water, for me, is that it enables me to stay hydrated (and cooler) during a day without dying from dehydration, it can be stored at ambient temperatures for well over a year, it's of a far better quality than my bare municipal supply, doesn't contain insane amounts of fluoride (or any) and supplies the mineral contents. Most importantly of all (for some people I know who are affected by this in Hamilton) it doesn't even contain trace amounts of lead or mercury, and considering the Hamilton region is considering changing the makeup of their municipal water so that it doesn't leach lead from piping rather than remove the lead pipes!
I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable with the idea of drinking or even showering in leaded water. Despite lead absorption through skin being rare, I think when it's covering your entire body it's present at some rate.
Sorry, bottled water is just fine for me. The reason I filter water is because it's economically prudent and for all I can tell (where I am at least) it tastes the same. Not buying 3 cases of water a week saves me roughly $450 in a year, which can be spent wherever I want from buying that $100 bottle of scotch to buying video games or whatever, I could even use that $450 to take the better part of a week off and who knows, plant a tree to save the environment or some other crap. There's far better ways to save the planet than to worry about bottled water, you know by renovating power plants, building nuclear + green, subsidizing improvements to home insulation levels. Offer subsidies to people who buy high-efficiency appliances, like washing machines (generally the most expensive appliance to run in any house) and dryers.
- MichaelSalib 16y agoWater Jug coolers simply don't cut it, even filled with ice cubes you'll only get until noon. I freeze 3 bottles of water, use ice packs and still my water can start getting warm on a hot sunny day. I don't understand this at all. Why can't you freeze a bunch of reusable bottles with tap water? Are you saying that the thermal properties of tap water differ significantly from those of bottled water? it doesn't even contain trace amounts of lead or mercury How do you know that? Did you hire an independent testing lab to verify that?
- electromagnetic 16y agoTo the latter; the water is independently tested by a government agency, and as I said the mineral contents (including heavy metals) is posted on the label. To the former, as you obviously read enough of my comment, I stated I fill the bottles on average 4 times a week (new bottles monday used until friday) with filtered water. Tap water here tastes disgusting and has huge amounts of chlorine, and in areas the municipal and house lines contain lead or are made of lead.
- MichaelSalib 16y agothe mineral contents (including heavy metals) is posted on the label. Interesting. I didn't know that the Canadian government is responsible for claims made on label packaging. Tap water here tastes disgusting and has huge amounts of chlorine, and in areas the municipal and house lines contain lead or are made of lead. Ah, thanks for explaining. Your comment was filled with so much unnecessary detail that I failed to connect the dots. I imagine that you could replace most of it with just this sentence.
- electromagnetic 16y agoFood standards agency is responsible for checking the claims made on packaging labels, whether they do or not is one of the many mysteries of our government.
- wooster 16y ago