The Liberty Tree Lantern has long been concerned about public brainwashing through various means including marketing.

Women seem to be particularly susceptible to marketing schemes that has huge impacts on the financial stress of families.  One such item of major concern along these lines is bottled water, where even today it costs more than gasoline and has huge unnecessary monthly financial impacts on the family budget with no benefit to its members in the far vast majority of circumstances.  Families today can not afford to be wasting money on items needed to live on a daily basis like water.

Here The Liberty Tree Lantern again sheds the light of truth for your family to enjoy very significant “monthly” cost savings, with no loss in water quality or heath, resulting in very significant financial improvements and, there by, quality of life. 

Brainwashing and behavior modification often has very detrimental consequences to mankind.  Always be careful and thoughtful with ideas and concepts provided by others; especially if it is attached to your financial welfare and budget.

The Liberty Tree Lantern does suggest that you have your tap water tested annually just to make sure of it’s quality and to ensure that it does not have levels of contaminents that exceed established safety limits.   Sample bottles and instructions can be purchased from various places including water testing facilities to whom you would send a sample.  The fees for tests can be as low as $15.00 for the lab results, depending on what is desired and “checked off” to test for. 

Large in home filter systems can be purchased that filter the entire plumbing system for a home.  The savings in the cost of bottled water can pay for such a system wide filter in a very short period of time.

Study: Bottled Water as Polluted as Tap Water

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Is bottled water any different than tap?

The study’s lab tests on 10 brands of bottled water detected 38 chemicals including bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Though some probably came from tap water that some companies use for their bottled water, other contaminants probably leached from plastic bottles, the researchers said.

“In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better,” said Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored the study.

The two-year study was done by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, an organization founded by scientists that advocates stricter regulation. It found the contaminants in bottled water purchased in nine states and Washington, D.C.

Researchers tested one batch for each of 10 brands. Eight did not have contaminants high enough to warrant further testing. But two brands did, so more tests were done and those revealed chlorine byproducts above California’s standard, the group reported. The researchers identified those two brands as Sam’s Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets.

In the Wal-Mart and Giant Food bottled water, the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known as trihalomethanes, was over 35 parts per billion. California’s limit is 10 parts per billion or less, and the industry’s International Bottled Water Association makes 10 its voluntary guideline. The federal limit is 80.

Wal-Mart said its own studies did not turn up illegal levels of contaminants. Giant Food officials released a statement asserting that Acadia meets all regulatory standards. Acadia is sold in the mid-Atlantic states, so it isn’t held to California’s standard. In most places, bottled water must meet roughly the same federal standards as tap water.

The researchers also said the Wal-Mart brand was five times California’s limit for one particular chlorine byproduct, bromodichloromethane. The environmental group wants Wal-Mart to label its bottles in California with a warning because the chlorine-based contaminants have been linked with cancer. It has filed a notice of intent to sue.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Shannon Frederick said the company was “puzzled” by the findings because testing by suppliers and another lab had detected no “reportable amounts” of such contaminants. She said Wal-Mart would investigate further but defended the quality of its bottled water.

The researchers recommend that people worried about water contaminants drink tap water with a carbon filter.