Naturalpath

Water is essential for life. So it's a wonder that we often treat this important ingredient of health and sustainability so casually.

What flows from the tap at home can be polluted with a form of pesticide, industrial chemical, pharmaceutical drug, or other toxin.

But if you're worried about the quality of your tap water, bottled water is a dubious solution. Here's why you should be careful about chosing bottled water:

1. It's expensive: According to calculations by the Natural Resources Defense Council, bottled water can cost from 240 to up to 10,000 times more per gallon than water from the faucet. Tap water vs bottled water, which is better? Tap, clearly on cost.

2. It may not be safer than tap water: Despite popular misperceptions (spawned primarily by advertising), bottled water is not regulated as strictly as tap water. In fact, unlike tap water, regulations allow bottled water to contain some contamination by E.coli or fecal coliform and don't require disinfection for Cryptosporidium or Giardia. And, as Consumer Reports tests discovered, unhealthy chemicals can migrate from plastic bottles into the water. Independent studies of the contents of bottled water have discovered fluoride, phthalates, trihalomethanes and arsenic, either present from the bottling process or from the bottles themselves. Tap water vs bottled water, which is better for health? Well, read on, but bottled water isn't necessarily safer.

3. Sometimes bottled water IS tap water: In spite of the springs, mountains and other bucolic scenes depicted on labels, some bottled water is nothing more than tap water, NRDC and Consumer Reports have found. Aquafina, for example, is drawn from the municipal water supplies of Detroit, Fresno, and other cities.

4. It creates mountains of plastic waste: An estimated 1.5 million tons of plastic is manufactured from petrochemicals each year to package water, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund. In 1999 alone, about 1 million tons of plastic bottles wound up in U.S. trash bins, the EPA estimates. In places like New York City, where plastic recycling has been cancelled, all those water bottles go straight into a landfill. For this reason, environmental groups are also concerned about the amount of waste that these plastic bottles create. Tap water vs bottled water, which is better? On environment, it's tap water, hands-down.

Tap water vs bottled water, which is better? Well, we conclude that tap water has the edge, but the clear winner is to buy a good filter and water container and use them.

According to Consumer Reports, a flood of new filters is making it easier than ever to remove impurities from your tap water. National Geographic's The Green Guide offers a helpful table that compares 18 popular filters side-by-side. It also provides each model's rating in Consumer Reports' latest May 2007 tests. We also list a number of quality water bottles below. Making these few small changes to your water drinking habits will help the environment and your personal health.