By Linda Patterson | Observer Contributor
There needs to be more education about the ill effects of bottled water, not only for health reasons but for the environmental issues linked with plastic.
This seven-billion-dollar-a-year industry acquires the water for free (sometimes from areas suffering from major droughts), spends on the average nine cents a gallon to bottle it and then sells it back to us for six dollars a gallon. 40% of bottled water is nothing more than filtered tap water.
Public drinking water must be tested hundreds of times a month in every city. Whereas bottled water is not regulated by the FDA and any testing is performed by the companies producing the water. These test results are not submitted to the FDA and are not accessible to the public.