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The Importance Of Drinking Bottled Water

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Not only is the government responsible for regulating Americas tap water, its also responsible for regulating packaged water. More specifically “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees the quality of water that comes out of your tap, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for ensuring the safety and truthful labeling of bottled water sold nationally. States are responsible for regulating water that is both packaged and sold within its borders” (Postman). But it should surprise many for them to find many states are very lax when it comes to regulating bottled water. Most surprisingly tap water is often times required to be cleaner than bottled water. Tap water is tested more often for quality insurance although the contaminates allowed don’t reflect as such. “For example, bottled-water plants must test for coliform bacteria just once a week; city tap needs to be tested 100 or more times a month.” (Postman). Most test find bottled water to be clean and pure, but some do underperform in cleanliness “About 22 percent of the brands tested contained chemicals at levels above state health limits” (Postman). Although this it is legal for these companies to have high levels of chemicals because its not city regulated, some companies are still required to report the purity of their water to the state they reside in. Another surprising fact is that some bottled water is just plainly tap water, “…if it says ‘from a municipal source" or "from a community

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