Student Action

Water Woes: A growing body of evidence is questioning the wisdom of getting our drinking water from plastic bottles

Rachel Punch, The Sudbury Star, March 1, 2008 - Brittany Rantala-Sykes, 17, has convinced her family to get off the bottle - the polyethylene terephthalate water bottle that is.

The PET plastic bottles are the ones that started turning up in refrigerators in the mid-1980s and have since become the container of choice for pop, juice and water.

"I bought everybody a (reusable) water bottle for Christmas two years ago. We haven't bought a case of water since then," said Rantala-Sykes, a Grade 12 student at Sudbury Secondary.

"I've tried to convert my friends' families as well."

Rantala-Sykes is part of a growing number of the environmentally aware who are waging a battle against the bottle. Those of a greener persuasion cringe as shopping carts are loaded with cases of water.

The water comes in a plastic container, which is made of ingredients derived from crude oil and natural gas.

The H2O is either pumped from the source by companies or taken from the tap in cities such as Brampton and Mississauga. Tap water is filtered and "mineralized," poured into bottles and trucked to stores in cities such as Sudbury.

As the bottles are produced, filled and trucked, carbon dioxide chugs out into the air.

"There is absolutely no reason to be drinking it because you can get it from the tap much more easily," said Richard Girard, corporate researcher at the Polaris Institute.

Rantala-Sykes is a member of the Roots and Shoots environmental club at school, which is selling stainless steel reusable water bottles.

Co-club member Rebecca Holmes hasn't been so successful at getting her family to stop buying bottled water.

"I've been slowly trying to get them to switch," said the 17 year old. "They just think it's more convenient to go and grab a bottle of water."

If you ask Girard, the convenience argument "holds no water."

"I would say that we have a responsibility to the environment. It's not that difficult for us to go and buy a stainless steel bottle and fill it up in the morning from our tap," he said.

The Ottawa-based Polaris Institute has been running the Inside the Bottle Campaign for about a year.

"We have various goals. Mostly it's to raise awareness about the bottled water industry and to help inform people about the importance of publicly funded municipal tap water," Girard said.

Marketing by bottled water companies is shaking the public's confidence in tap water, he said.

"If people lose confidence in the publicly funded and distributed water ... they will turn to drinking bottled water exclusively," Girard said.

"When it comes time for the municipality or the province to update our rapidly crumbling municipal water systems, they have much less interest in doing so because the public is convinced that it's not good for you."

Girard demonstrated what he called the "ridiculousness" of drinking bottled water using the example of Dasani, a Coca-Cola product.

Dasani water sold in Sudbury first flows out of the tap in Brampton, he said.

"It is purified by the municipality using taxpayers' money, then it comes out of the tap at the bottling plant," Girard said.

The water is then put through "reverse osmosis" filtration and very little else, Girard said.

"They turn water into water and they sell it for a huge mark-up," he said.

Elizabeth Griswold, executive director of the Canadian Bottled Water Association, does not agree with Girard's assessment.

About 25 per cent of bottled water does come from tap water, but Griswold said the finished product has been "completely modified."

"The finished product of the processed water, it doesn't resemble in any way the composition of the original source," she said.

The other 75 per cent of bottled waters are spring or mineral water. "The Food and Drug Act does not allow that water to be changed in any way," she said. "It has to meet the requirements set out by the full act."

She didn't go as far as to say it's better for you.

"The consumers drink bottled water because it's a convenient and healthy beverage option," Griswold said.

While it may be convenient, so is getting water from the tap. Then you don't even have to drive to the store. The tap is also hands-down cheaper.

Griswold said the media often exaggerates the cost of water, quoting the price of the larger bottles. A 1.5-litre bottle of Dasani, for example, was selling for $1.79 at a Sudbury grocery store.

Most customers, she said, buy bottled water in bulk, such as a case of 24 or 18-litre bottles. She said the average cost for bottled water is 30 cents per litre.

Greater Sudbury residents pay a fixed cost on their water bill for services such as the water treatment plant. The variable cost on the bill is based on how much water we use.

Nick Benkovich, the city's director of water and waste water services, said for every 1,000 litres of water we use we pay about 93 cents. That works out to about 0.093 cents a litre.

"We feel that our service is a very economical way to get drinking water," he said.

The city is so proud of its water, council passed a motion recently directing staff to promote and support the use and consumption of our tap water.

Water bottles are also starting to disappear from board room tables around the city. Rainbow District School Board, for example, decided in November to stop using bottled water.

"We have made sustainability a priority in everything we do at the board ... We kind of thought here we are, we're saying this and we have got bottled water in front of us," said board chair Judy Hunda. "We feel that as leaders in learning, we recognize we are role models. We figured that we would lead by example."

Aside from being economical, tap water is also safe, Benkovich said. Sudbury tap water is subject to about 65,000 tests per year.

"On top of that, we have all the very rigid Ministry of Environment inspections which occur. Those are done on an annual basis at each of our facilities," he said.

"I want to assure people that we do everything possible to make sure the water is of a consistent quality and meets all of the drinking water standards of Ontario at all times.

"Each and every day we have three of our staff in the field taking samples and performing quality control tests on our water in our distribution systems."

Some residents complain of a chlorine taste to tap water, Benkovich said. He offered an easy solution. Put the tap water in a jug in the refrigerator for a few hours.

"The chlorine will dissipate out of the water and the chlorine taste will no longer be apparent," he said.

While bottled water may not smell like chlorine, the Polaris Institute argues it is not monitored as closely as tap water.

It falls under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because it is considered a food product.

Paul Kirkby, chief, processing technology at the agency, said water bottling facilities must be inspected once every three years.

Griswold points out that in Canada "there has never been a documented case of anyone being ill due to the consumption of bottled water."

Environmentalists still raise warning flags because chemicals such as the toxic compound antimony have been found in bottled water.

A study done at the University of Heidelberg in Germany measured the abundance of antimony in 15 brands of Canadian bottled water and 48 from across Europe. The study found higher levels on antimony in PET plastic bottles when compared to ground and tap water. The amount of antimony increased in water that had been in the bottle longer. While none of the water had antimony concentrations near the limits recommended for drinking water, the professor conducting the research said the continuous release from the container to the fluid is bothersome.

"There are no studies that have shown that there are any limits of chemicals that have leached out of plastics that are anywhere near a level that would be harmful to humans," Griswold countered.

Another chemical has been bubbling up in the news lately - bisphenol A. The chemical is found in harder plastics, such as the polycarbonate reusable water bottles and even plastic baby bottles.

Health Canada is currently taking a closer look at bisphenol A after it was shown to cause negative reproductive effects in tests with lab animals. The chemical has also been linked to cancer and shown to affect brain development in animal studies.

The findings have caused new moms to opt for glass baby bottles and some retailers to stop selling hard plastic reusable water bottles.

Health Canada is reviewing the safety of bisphenol A in humans. A preliminary report is due out in May.

To be safe, the environmental club at Sudbury Secondary is pushing the stainless steel bottles. The club will be peddling the bottles, brand named "Klean Kanteen," at Market Square for Earth Day on April 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The money raised will go toward the club and a local charity to fit with its theme of "think globally, act locally."

As government agencies, bottling companies and environmental watchdogs argue the long-term effects of plastic on humans, 17-year-old Danielle Dub‚ is simply staying away from it.

Her family, which has eight members, doesn't drink bottled water. They use reusable bottles and have ordered Klean Kanteens.

"Stainless steel has been around forever, so we know it's safe," said Dub‚, a member of Roots and Shoots.

"We know that there is concern with plastic water bottles leaching chemicals into the water that you are drinking ... Stainless steel water bottles don't leach the chemicals."

rpunch@thesudburystar.com