Four reasons to stop buying bottled water

By the DB Pirates Temperatures have definitely been on the rise recently with summer nearing its peak.
Food (or water) for thought!
Hong Kong water is safe to drink!
Opting for distilled water can strip your intake of minerals, which may cause electrolyte imbalances, tooth decay and mineral deficiencies.
Purified water can also be acidic and may contain microbes.
With all of this information to hand, the case for ditching plastic bottles is pretty clear to understand.
Refill it for free with filtered water when dining out (you may want to consider giving your server a tip as a kind gesture), and remember to bring it with you again the next day.
DB Pirates is a premier sporting club on Lantau offering professional coaching in rugby, hockey, netball and dragon boating.
Men, women and kids aged four and above are welcome to register for the new season starting in August.
Image: www.bloomberg.com Tags: hydrate, plastic bottles, reusable bottles, environmentally conscious, single use plastic

Four reasons to stop buying bottled water

By the DB Pirates Temperatures have definitely been on the rise recently with summer nearing its peak.
Food (or water) for thought!
Hong Kong water is safe to drink!
Opting for distilled water can strip your intake of minerals, which may cause electrolyte imbalances, tooth decay and mineral deficiencies.
Purified water can also be acidic and may contain microbes.
With all of this information to hand, the case for ditching plastic bottles is pretty clear to understand.
Refill it for free with filtered water when dining out (you may want to consider giving your server a tip as a kind gesture), and remember to bring it with you again the next day.
DB Pirates is a premier sporting club on Lantau offering professional coaching in rugby, hockey, netball and dragon boating.
Men, women and kids aged four and above are welcome to register for the new season starting in August.
Image: www.bloomberg.com Tags: hydrate, plastic bottles, reusable bottles, environmentally conscious, single use plastic

New tests beg the question: why are we buying bottled water?

Some bottled water also contains fluoride* — one reason some people avoid tap water — and some tap water has more minerals* than bottled “mineral water”.
And one company that’s been put to the test — Nature’s Best — was found to be really not that different to tap water at all.
Australian tap water is tested by government water authorities and there are rules to make sure it’s safe to drink.
Testing at Griffith University showed tap water has a relatively* high concentration of minerals such as calcium* and magnesium*, more than most of the bottled brands, except Fiji water.
Acidic drinks and foods can be damaging to tooth enamel*.
Dr Leusch said anything that said “safe, pure Australian water” was probably just tap water.
Chlorine and fluoride can make water slightly acidic, so lime*, caustic soda* or soda ash* are usually added to make the water neutral, rather than acidic.
What makes up most of the cost of some bottled water, according to Dr Leusch?
Create two list of benefits and disadvantages, one for tap water and one for bottled water.
Time: Allow 20 minutes Curriculum Links: Science Extension: As you have read in the story, advertising is used to make people think that bottled water is better for us than tap water.

Lincoln residents buying up bottled water due to boil advisory

LINCOLN, N.D. – Residents of Lincoln are being told to boil water before consuming it until further notice.
It comes after one home in the town tested positive for E. coli.
On Wednesday, residents were notified, sending some, like Andrew Cartmill to the store for bottled water.
Mayor Gerarld Wise says neighboring homes tested negative for the bacteria.
“It’s an isolated situation,” Wise said.
“ A flyer handed out to residents says to boil all water for one minute and let cool before using.
That goes for washing dishes, brushing teeth, food preparation and more.
But for Lincoln residents, it’s just one more issue with the water in town.
“It seems like we just got over an issue with the water shortage,” Cartmill said.
He says the home will be tested again Thursday, and it will take about 24 hours to get the results back from the state Health Department.

Huntly residents forced to buy bottled after tap water turns brown

Residents in Huntly have been forced to buy bottled water and visit family and friends to bathe after supplies from the tap turned brown.
Scottish Water said it was dealing with an ongoing “discolouration” issue due to the presence of “naturally occurring manganese”.
Nonetheless, many residents have been put off by the dark brown tinge and some have been buying water in bulk.
Within The Gordon Schools, kitchen staff had to boil water and supply pupils with bottled water while the discolouration has been present.
It might damage my machine.
She said: “A health professional advised it was probably best not to put her in the bath.
I certainly don’t want her to end up with infected chicken pox.” One family on Scott Drive have also been avoiding drinking the water, with Pauline Whyte describing her shower water as looking “as though I’d over done the fake tan”.
She said: “We’ve been buying bottled water, though I don’t really like having to buy all that plastic.” Last night the problem seemed to have been resolved in many homes and taps were once again running clear, though Scottish Water said its efforts to prevent the problem from reoccurring would continue.
A spokeswoman apologised for any inconvenience.
We would like to reassure those affected that this is not deemed to be a health risk and the water remains safe to drink and use for cooking and cleaning.

People are still buying too many single-use plastic bottles

(AP) — Plastic bottles: an everyday object, but an environmental menace.
And in the UK, not enough people are swapping these throwaway items for reusable bottles – that’s according to research by Keep Britain Tidy and Brita.
They surveyed 2,138 people and found just 36 percent regularly carry a reusable bottle.
"I think our children will look back at this moment in time in horror and wonder at the way we were behaving."
At Borough Market in London, the management is trying to do its bit for the environment by installing water fountains and banning the sale of bottled water.
"We have to think of the next generation and the world that they’re living in and how we can create a much better world for them so that they’re not going to be looking back on the generation that was before and say ‘they didn’t care about us’," says David Matchett, Development Manager for Borough Market.
Discarded plastics cause terrible environmental problems.
One woman says a lot of places don’t have water fountains available "so you end up having to buy a plastic water bottle".
"I buy water, branded water, because London water tastes horrible," claims a man.
Keep Britain Tidy wants more water fountains to be introduced across the UK so people can easily stay hydrated on the go, without using lots of unnecessary plastic.

Fear of dying drives people to buy bottled water: Study

Anti-bottled water campaigns have trouble competing with corporate bottled water messaging.
The fear of dying drives people to buy bottled water, despite knowing that it may not be good for them or the planet, scientists say.
The study suggests that most bottled-water advertising campaigns target a deep psychological vulnerability in humans, compelling them to buy and consume particular products.
"Bottled water advertisements play on our greatest fears in two important ways," said Stephanie Cote, who conducted the research as a graduate student at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
"Our mortality fears make us want to avoid risks and, for many people, bottled water seems safer somehow, purer or controlled," said Cote.
"There is also a deeper subconscious force at work here, one that caters to our desire for immortality," she said.
The study used social psychology’s Terror Management Theory (TMT) as its framework.
TMT researchers argue that people’s efforts to repress conscious and unconscious fear of death generates specific defences that influence behaviours such as consumption choices, the accumulation of wealth, and status security.
The research team analysed data drawn from the content of bottled water campaigns and advertisements, websites, photographs, and videos that revealed implicit and explicit meanings.
They also examined how anti-bottled water campaigns have trouble competing with corporate bottled water messaging.

Fear of death drives up bottled-water sales: study

Toronto, Feb 4 The fear of dying drives people to buy bottled water, despite knowing that it may not be good for them or the planet, scientists say.
The study suggests that most bottled-water advertising campaigns target a deep psychological vulnerability in humans, compelling them to buy and consume particular products.
"Bottled water advertisements play on our greatest fears in two important ways," said Stephanie Cote, who conducted the research as a graduate student at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
"Our mortality fears make us want to avoid risks and, for many people, bottled water seems safer somehow, purer or controlled," said Cote.
"There is also a deeper subconscious force at work here, one that caters to our desire for immortality," she said.
The study used social psychology’s Terror Management Theory (TMT) as its framework.
TMT researchers argue that people’s efforts to repress conscious and unconscious fear of death generates specific defences that influence behaviours such as consumption choices, the accumulation of wealth, and status security.
The research team analysed data drawn from the content of bottled water campaigns and advertisements, websites, photographs, and videos that revealed implicit and explicit meanings.
They also examined how anti-bottled water campaigns have trouble competing with corporate bottled water messaging.
"Our results demonstrate that corporate campaigns appeal to people who measure their personal value by their physical appearance, fitness levels, material and financial wealth, class, and status," said Sarah Wolfe, a researcher in Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment.

South African charity to stockpile water for dry Cape Town

In this photo taken Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, people queue for water at a natural spring in Cape Town, South Africa. A charity announced Monday Jan. 29, 2018, it is organizing a nationwide collection of bottled water for stockpiling in military bases in and around the tourist city which might have to turn off most taps in April because of a prolonged drought. (AP Photo) JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Officials in Cape Town on Monday tried to allay international concerns about the water crisis in the South African city, saying tourists and investors are welcome despite fears that most taps could be turned off in April because of drought. In a “two-way conversation,” some diplomats who met officials managing Cape Town’s crisis referred to water shortages in their own countries, including in Barcelona, Spain and the U.S. state of California, said Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro, an agency that promotes tourism and trade in Western Cape province. “I think a lot of cities are going to go through challenges like this,” Harris said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press after…

11 percent of disappearing groundwater used to grow internationally traded food

11 percent of disappearing groundwater used to grow internationally traded food.
To produce these crops many countries rely on irrigated agriculture that accounts for about 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, according to the United Nations Water program.
A new study by researchers at the University College London and NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York City shows that 11 percent of the global non-renewable groundwater drawn up for irrigation goes to produce crops that are then traded on the international market.
Additionally, two-thirds of the exported crops that depend on non-renewable groundwater are produced in Pakistan (29 percent), the United States (27 percent), and India (12 percent).
Their analysis is the first to determine which specific crops come from groundwater reservoirs that won’t renew on human time-scales and where they are consumed.
"It’s important from Japan’s perspective to know whether that corn is being produced with a sustainable source of water, because you can imagine in the long term if groundwater declines too much, the United States will have difficulty producing that crop."
Countries that export and import these crops may be at risk in the future of losing the crops, and their profits, produced with non-renewable groundwater.
Aquifers form when water accumulates in the ground over time, sometimes over hundreds or thousands of years.
Non-renewable aquifers are those that do not accumulate rainfall fast enough to replace what is drawn out to the surface, either naturally to lakes and rivers or in this case by people via pumping.
"What’s innovative about this study is it connects groundwater depletion estimates with country level data," said hydrologist Matt Rodell at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved in the study.