Bottled Drinking Water is a Massive Threat to the Environment, Caution Experts

The consumption of bottled water has been rising sharply day by day. Researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) say that the cost of extraction of resources for bottled water will have more impact on ecosystems when compared to tap water. Subjective factors like odor, taste, marketing by bottled water companies, risk perception, and lack of trust in public tap water quality were found to be the causes behind this.

“Tap water quality has increased substantially in Barcelona since incorporating advanced treatments over the last few years. However, this considerable improvement has not been mirrored by an increase in tap water consumption, which suggests that water consumption could be motivated by subjective factors other than quality,” says Cristina Villanueva, first author of the study.

For the current study, the team combined findings from a Barcelona-based Life Cycle Assessment and Health Impact Assessment. This was particularly useful as the city is home to approximately 1.35 million people, around 58% of whom consume bottled water at least sometimes.

Key findings:

• Supplying bottled drinking water for every person in Barcelona would lead to 1.43 species lost per year

• This may also take US$83.9 million annually in the extraction of raw materials

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• Supply of bottled water produced about a 1,400 times more significant impact in ecosystems and 3,500 times higher resource extraction cost than the scenario where everyone shifts to tap water only

The study also recommends the use of domestic filters that can substantially reduce trihalomethane levels in tap water. This substance has the potential to cause bladder cancer, but the risk is limited.

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“Our study shows that due to the high quality of the tap water in Barcelona, the risk for health is small, especially when we take into account the overall impacts of bottled water,” concludes the team.

Source-Medindia