Board Thread:Watercooler 2.0/@comment-6198648-20130228045108/@comment-6191693-20130531020537

Well, you also have to think that the water in the toilet bowl is only as clean as the last flush left it. Dozens of people may have peed/shat in it before you sat down there and splashed their residual excrement all over yourself.

When it comes to tap water vs. bottled water, you're right about one thing and that's the dubiousness of some bottled water companies. Some are just filtered tapwater and some come from impure springs. However, the water coming out of your tap, if you live in a US state that fluorodates its tap water (most of them do), you are literally drinking poison. Fluoride in any significant amount is very bad for you and when you drink it every day, it builds up in your system. I know it is a known carcinogen and that that is not the only ill effect of it, but I can't remember any of the other effects off the top of my head. That's why it's banned in many other developed countries and in some US states (I know Oregon is one). Water filters also cannot remove fluoride from water -- the only way you can do that is to distill it or through something called reverse osmosis, which is a process that I don't really understand.

Also, the fluoride issue is just one of many with government water. Most of the chemicals used, like chlorine, are fairly harmless and are necessary for purification, but some of the others are questionable and how thoroughly heavily polluted water gets cleaned can often be called into question. You say it because it's given to us by the government, but this is the same government that passed the so-called "Monsanto Protection Act." That's not its real name, of course, but it has come to be called that by its opponents because it establishes a clause that states that should Monsanto, the chemical and agricultural giant responsible for most of the genetically modified crops in the US (which today is the overwhelming majority, to the point where they have a near-monopoly on seed and pesticides), develop a genetically modified organism (GMO) or chemical that the FDA or the USDA finds to be unsafe for human consumption, Monsanto is under no obligation to cease production of the product in question. So, now, Monsanto is literally above the law.

Spring water may be sketchy sometimes, but it's a little more predictable and a lot easier to research than what's in your tap water. There is also distilled water, which has had all of the impurities distilled out of it -- it is literally 100% pure H2O. People just like to buy spring water instead because they like the taste the minerals in that particular spring give to the water (but really mostly because of packaging, marketing, and the fact that it's trendy). Distilled water is the only 100% safe water.