Yes, it is a Bubbler. And No, You Cannot Drink from it.

Recess is over and kids are racing to the school entrance to be first in line for the drinking fountain—or bubbler, depending on where you are from.

Imagine if once the rush of students approaches the bubbler, a sign above it reads “Do Not Drink: Water is tainted with nitrates, a potential carcinogen and a pesticide that may cause male sterility.” “Do Not Drink” is about the only thing that will register and considering a 9-year-old’s thirst after recess, tainted or not, water will be gulped down. And who can blame the kids? After an intense game of tag, how can you not hit up the bubbler? You played hard! And moms and dads always say to drink eight glasses of water a day. Water is good for you, right?

No unfortunately, not all water is good for you.

Recently, an AP investigation found that contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states—in both small farm towns and inner cities. Scary, I know. According to the AP investigation, 1 out of every 5 schools with its own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade. That’s a staggering 20% of schools.

Yes, this is really happening. Here are two examples of reported effects of toxic school drinking water:

• In 2001, 28 children at a Worthington, Minnesota elementary school experienced severe stomach aches and nausea after drinking water tainted with lead and copper.
• In Seattle, a 6-year-old girl suffered stomach aches and became disoriented and easily exhausted. The girl's mother asked her daughter's school to test its water, and also tested a strand of her daughter's hair. Tests showed high levels of copper and lead.

Luckily, steps have been taken. See improvement options, according to the article, below:

• Improve Water System: In California, the Department of Public Health has given out more than $4 million in recent years to help districts overhaul their water systems.
• New School Building: After wrestling with unsafe levels of arsenic for almost two years, administrators in Sterling, Ohio, finally bought water coolers for elementary school students last fall. Now they plan to move students to a new building.
• Bottled Water: Many school officials say buying bottled water is less expensive than fixing old pipes. Baltimore, for instance, has spent more than $2.5 million on bottled water over the last six years.

I know Chemistry is a subject in almost every school; it should not be in every school’s water.

Tap Water Safer than Bottled? Not According to the Facts!

The debate over bottled water versus tap water has recently found new life due to consumer curiosity on how the industry is regulated and enforced. While the argument is not concentrated on the purity of the water itself, the conversation challenges the current rules governing the sourcing and nutritional information bottled-water producers are required to let their customers know. Simply stated, this is a question of consumer choice when it comes to their drinking water.

But when municipal and city water utilities make the claim that their water is safer due to the perception of stronger oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they are strongly misleading the public. There are many variables to consider when it comes to water quality throughout the country, especially where the tap water suppliers are concerned.

Wherever the product comes from, the filtration process of the bottled water should not be dismissed or discounted. For example, Culligan dealers are independently owned and operated, and the individual franchisees are responsible for their own product. All of their water goes through the reverse osmosis filtration process, which eliminates up to 99.9% of impurities and contaminants despite the source. In terms of labeling and disclosure, the term “reverse osmosis” and “purified” meet all the standards approved and enforced by the Food and Drug Administration.

Before you ban the bottle and run to the tap, keep a few things in mind.

• The AP reported earlier this year there are 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals throughout the country’s municipal water systems. These are unregulated compounds. Quite simply, modern chemistry is outrunning the utilities’ technology.

• The health limits and legal limits provided by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act are often different, with the legal limit at a much higher threshold than the health limit.

• Water utilities don’t have to include every contaminant in their water. Places like Chicago, for example, are mum on the pesticides and sex hormones in its system.

• Check how your tap water stacked up in one of the most intensive tap water studies ever done by the third-party Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Database. According to their research, 140 million contaminants with no enforceable regulation are attacking your tap. Residents cannot pick which utility serves their home, but they can choose a consumer water supplier that can ensure its quality.

Culligan constantly develops technologies devoted to sustainable high water quality such as whole-house filtration systems and bottle-less water coolers. Culligan dealers are also quick to point out bottled water is crucial for disaster relief, since it is safely packaged and potable.In fact, an EPA study counted 433,947 documented illnesses and 73 deaths between 1991 and 2002 stemming from tap water. Bottled water has never been cited as a source for a large-scale outbreak.

There are many sides to the bottled water issue, keep the ‘source’ in mind.

Highlights from the Oral Testimony and Question Responses

Deputy Principal Commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein
Food and Drug Administration
At the Hearing on the Regulation of Bottled Water
July 8, 2009
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives

FDA on Bottled Water Safety:

“In general, FDA’s oversight of bottled water I think can be described as successful. The agency is aware of no major outbreaks of illness or serious safety concerns associated with bottled water in the past decade. “

Later, answering Rep. Greg Waldren’s question on lead in water, FDA stated:

“In fact, I advised the school superintendent to turn-off all the drinking fountains in the Baltimore city public schools because of the problems they were having with lead. And to go with bottled water across the system. In turned out to be cheaper also, given the expense that they had of testing the municipal water because of old buildings and the problems they had with the pipes in the school. So, as a health commissioner, I think there are certain scenarios where, for example, after certain types of disruption of the water supply, the water can unsafe for a period of time, you recommend a switch to bottled water or boil it.”


In a Comparison with Soft Drinks, FDA stated:

“A cola is a food product that is not subject to the Good Manufacturing Practices that exist specifically for bottled water. I would say there is definitely more regulations on bottled water… Bottled water has a whole set of regulations that are really just for bottled water.”

FDA On Interstate Sales of Bottled Water:

“If the bottle comes from outside the state or the cap comes from outside the state, even if it’s just sold within the state, it counts as interstate. And there’s a presumption, I understand, it would be interstate. But in theory, there may be products that could challenge our authority over them although I’m not aware for water they we’ve heard about a problem that we haven’t get able to get to, either directly or through the states.”

FDA On the Use of Recycled Plastic Bottles:

“I’m not aware of any special concerns for recycled plastic. I think if there are concerns people have, they should share them with the agency.”

FDA’s Overview of Bottled Water Regulations:

“FDA has established specific regulations for bottled water in the code of Federal regulations. These regulations include standard of identity regulations that define different types of bottled water, such as spring water verses mineral water and standard of quality regulations that establish allowable levels for chemical, physical, microbial and radiological contaminants. FDA has established Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for the process and bottling of bottled drinking water.

Labeling and GMP regulations for foods in general also apply to bottled water.

"Federal law requires FDA to set similar standards for bottled water as exist for municipal water or explain why they should not apply. FDA has established such standards for over 90 contaminants and in some cases, such as for lead or copper, the FDA limits are stricter for bottled water than for municipal water.
And another point to make in this regard is the way the testing is done is different. For example, take the lead standard. Any test that is high is violative, that is done on FDA-regulated bottled water. For the municipal water, if only a percentage of the samples is above a certain level does the municipal water supply fail that. They’re allowed to have certain failures and not have it as a failure for the municipal water supply. It just illustrates there’s a different approach that’s taken into context.”

FDA Monitoring and Testing of Bottled Water:

“FDA monitors and inspects bottled water products and processing plants as part of its general food safety program. Inspections occur approximately once every one to three years. The Agency inspects violative firms more frequently depending on the number of significance and occurrence of violations. FDA field offices follow-up on consumer and trade complaints and other leads on potentially violative bottled water products. As for other types of food, FDA periodically collects and analyzes samples of bottled water. Samples of foreign bottled water offered for entry may be collected and tested to determine if they are in compliance with the laws and regulations. And last, we test the water for microbial, radiological or chemical contamination.”

FDA and the new e-Coli standard:

“Most recently, on May 29, 2009, FDA published a final rule to require that bottled water manufacturers test source water and finished bottled water products for total coliform organisms and to prohibit distribution of products containing any E.coli indicator of fecal contamination. FDA is also requiring that before a bottler can use source water from a source that tested positive for E.coli, the bottler must take appropriate measures to rectify or eliminate the cause of the problem. And the bottler must keep records of such actions.”

Later, answering Rep. Greg Waldren’s question on E.c oli issues, he stated:

“My understanding is that public water systems are required to collect monthly total coliform samples throughout their distribution systems and that, if they are positive, they must be tested for E.coli. For systems collecting more than 40 samples per month, if more than 5% are positive, that triggers a violation. If it’s less than 40 samples per month, than one positive test triggers a violation. For FDA, bottled water, if there’s any violation, that kicks in. For municipal, if its a lots of tests, then there has to be a certain percentage of the tests filed to trigger a violation.”

FDA On DEHP, he stated:

“We don’t believe it is being used in water bottles or water caps.”

AP Story: Drinking from the Tap is Like Drinking from a Pharmacy

By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza And Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writers – Mon Apr 20,
Sun Apr 19, 12:40 PM ET
In this photo taken on Feb. 26, 2009, aeration basins are seen in operation at the Wilmington Wastewater Treatment Plant in Wilmington, Del. Scientists took samples from the Delaware River nearby and found elevated concentrations of the painkiller codeine that are prompting them to try and track the source of the drug; this treatment plant handles sewage from a nearby pharmaceutical factory that makes codeine.

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.
Federal and industry officials say they don't know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them — as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories.

As part of its ongoing PharmaWater investigation about trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, AP identified 22 compounds that show up on two lists: the EPA monitors them as industrial chemicals that are released into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water under federal pollution laws, while the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.
The data don't show precisely how much of the 271 million pounds comes from drugmakers versus other manufacturers; also, the figure is a massive undercount because of the limited federal government tracking.

To date, drugmakers have dismissed the suggestion that their manufacturing contributes significantly to what's being found in water. Federal drug and water regulators agree.

But some researchers say the lack of required testing amounts to a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy about whether drugmakers are contributing to water pollution.
"It doesn't pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they're creating," said Kyla Bennett, who spent 10 years as an EPA enforcement officer before becoming an ecologist and environmental attorney.

Pilot studies in the U.S. and abroad are now confirming those doubts.
Last year, the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in American drinking water supplies. Including recent findings in Dallas, Cleveland and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties, pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans.
Most cities and water providers still do not test. Some scientists say that wherever researchers look, they will find pharma-tainted water.

Consumers are considered the biggest contributors to the contamination. We consume drugs, then excrete what our bodies don't absorb. Other times, we flush unused drugs down toilets. The AP also found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities.

Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.

Utilities say the water is safe. Scientists, doctors and the EPA say there are no confirmed human risks associated with consuming minute concentrations of drugs. But those experts also agree that dangers cannot be ruled out, especially given the emerging research.