Tapped

An award-winning documentary on DVD from the producers of "Who Killed the Electric Car?", Tapped explores the dark side of the bottled water industry. Human beings need clean drinking water to live. It is legal in some states for gigantic bottled water companies to suck public tap water sources dry (even when shortages force residents to ration water) then repackage and resell it at a gigantic markup - with infinitely less regulatory oversight than there is for tap water (and bottled water sold in the same state as it is pumped is virtually unregulated) - but is it ethical? Is the plastic used to create the water bottles truly safe for humans to put in their mouths? Perhaps worst of all is America's catastrophic overall failure to recycle plastic water bottles, resulting in an avalanche of non-biodegradable waste being pitched into landfills, or even straight into the ocean, where plastic bottles form a large part of a floating ocean garbage mound hundreds of square miles large. The bottle deposit laws of some states have been a proven, highly effective method to promote recycling - but because it incurs a minor expense the enormously profitable bottled water industry (an expense otherwise borne by everyone who has to cope with improperly disposed plastic bottle), corporations fight such legislative measures tooth and nail. Corporate control over public water supply, and corporate refusal to help shoulder the burden of recycling the mounds of plastic trash that are the byproducts of its profit, can only be combated by political activism - ordinary citizens getting involved and laying claim to their water rights, as well as their rights to a clean environment. A must-see, highly recommended documentary guaranteed to make viewers think twice before paying through the nose for what is essentially bottled (and smartly advertised) tap water. 75 and 54 minute versions of Tapped are available on the same DVD.

Watch this movie and make some very easy changes if you care about your children's future and the future of the planet as we know it. I am an ordinary mom who sees these things as common sense.

The information about the chemicals from the plastic bottles leaching into the bottled water has caused me to look further into what other food and drinks are packaged in plastics and what type of independent testing is done or not done to protect consumers. In addition, the "plastic soup" floating in the Pacific and Atlantic the size of Texas is alarmingly killing fish and plankton essential for life on our planet. Yikes. One more thing, I need to research for myself, but in the movie, members of Congress were questioning the FDA and EPA regarding the outdated procedures used to get products approved for the public. Like I said I need to verify this, but they said that no independent testing of products is required for approval and that the FDA and EPA rely on reports generated by the companies themselves stating that their products are safe. That just seems insane so I need to do some more research to see if that is true.

Well- I just went to the FDA.gov site

[...]

And found the following quote
FDA reviews the results of laboratory, animal and human clinical testing done by companies to determine if the product they want to put on the market is safe and effective. FDA does not develop or test products itself. The Agency does this pre-market review for new human drugs and biologics (such as vaccines, blood products, biotechnology products and gene therapy), complex medical devices, food and color additives, infant formulas, and animal drugs.

Something NEEDS to change.

Vote with your dollars by choosing products that are safe.

Write your political leaders and demand common sense regulation.

These current laws obviously care more about profits than the citizens of the U.S.A.

There were always some lingering questions about the quality of the water in the bottles and any thinking person has to wonder about all those plastic bottles going into the eco-system, but this is the first time I was exposed to an organized, detailed look at the entire industry.

This documentary explores how bottled water comes about as well as the packaging and the impact on the environment. Let me tell you, if half of this is true (and I suspect all of it is) there is absolutely nothing positive about bottled water. It's as though that industry gets something for free, gets it onto the market at an unbelievably low cost and sells it back to you at an unbelievably high profit. Then they screw you on the back end by fouling up the environment. Essentially, they are charging you big money (more than you're paying for gasoline) for an inferior grade of a product you can get for nearly free. Not to mention the added health risks involved from drinking from those plastic bottles.

There are a few scenes where industry people are questioned on various matters and it even had me squirming. This is a horrible, horrible market in every aspect, and it is almost entirely unnecessary.

I'm tapping out now. I'm going to get myself a stainless steel personal water bottle and grab my water from home. It's safer to drink, costs less and won't screw up the environment.