EDBERG: Bottled or tap?

Stephen Edberg and others who raise this issue are inventing a concern that does not exist. Certainly, in a laboratory environment one can test and find differences in the quality of water between bottled water and that which we might drink from our garden hose after a day spent working in our yards or cutting grass. But so what?!? The question on our public water quality is really more simple. How does it compare to the rest of the world? Does anyone traveling to the USA get a warning not to drink the water? Having suffered Montezuma's revenge in other countries from having inadvertently consumed water from their municipal systems, like a splash when showering, I can say that on at least 3 continents that the US municipal water systems are the envy of the world. Citizens of most countries outside the US will not even drink from their own municipal water systems. While what comes out of our tap may not be 100% pure H2O, I do not see that to be a necessity to human survival or a quality of life. We as humans drank from rivers and streams for millions of years and look at our success. Those of us who are outdoorsmen/women, look at drinking ice cold water from a bubbling brook as a delicacy. This notion that humans must have a sterile environment in which to live and all things we come into contact with or consume must be as sterile as a laboratory is a lunacy as such would actually weaken our immune systems and our species as a whole. Certainly, there are cleanliness standards that must be adhered to in order to keep from spreading disease through our food and water distribution systems but laboratory conditions are not required and attempting for us all to live the life of the "Boy in the Bubble" will only ensure that future generations of humans will be forced to live in sterile environments and that leads to a life less free. As kids we dug for worms to fish with, made mud pies, dared each other to eat a bug and swam in lakes and streams, yet we still exist. The air we breath daily is unfiltered and impure and contains a multitude of gases that are not the oxygen we need to survive yet we do not see the need for the average healthy person to drag a tank if oxygen around with them every where they go in order to breath clinically sterile air. Americans have become way too obsessed avoiding all germs to the point that we have helped to create super-bugs. A super-bug is not really super at all. It is super only when compared to our immune systems that we have over protected while the microbes our bodies face continue their evolution. Certainly sanitary conditions are beneficial and necessary the idea that we should seek to live our lives in a sterile world is lunacy with no long-term benefits to our species. My advice to Stephen Edberg is to take a walk on the wild side and go play in the dirt again and take a swig from the garden hose.

Agreed, there are situations (particularly if you have just attended the Olympic Games in China) that require you to drink bottled water. Otherwise, it is an exorbitant expense, the plastic bottles help to destroy the environment and, if you really think that our drinking water (which is among the best in the world) is problematic, boil it and keep it in the refrigerator.