(Cross-posted at MyDD and Calitics and BlueNC)
We know that the public water supply in some U.S. cities contains trace amounts of things we don't necessarily want to be drinking.
And we also know that the bottled water industry has lots of ramifications for the environment-- non-biodegradable plastic bottles littering the landscape, for one.
But did you know that Walmart, in its ceaseless drive to sell crap to Americans, has managed to dovetail these two problems?
The Wakeup Walmart blog (I do some work with them) has got a great piece on this development:
Wal-Mart's bottled water is:
-bad for the environment, like all bottled water
-bad for your health because it contains dangerous pollutants, toxins, and pharmaceuticals
-sometimes just tap water in a bottle
-incredibly expensive compared to tap water
The San Francisco Chronicle goes further into depth:
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization with offices in Oakland, tested 10 brands of bottled water and found that Wal-Mart's Sam's Choice contained chemical levels that exceeded legal limits in California and the voluntary standards adopted by the industry.
and:
Three samples of Sam's Choice bought in Oakland, Mountain View and Fayetteville, N.C., contained levels of total trihalomethanes between 14 ppb and 37 ppb, exceeding the state and industry standard of 10 ppb.
and:
Also present in bottled water were caffeine and the pharmaceutical Tylenol, as well as arsenic, radioactive isotopes, nitrates and ammonia from fertilizer residue. Industrial chemicals used as solvents, degreasing agents and propellants were also found in the tests.
That's right. Not only is Walmart happy to pander to our (in some cases justified) fears about the safety of our tapwater-- by offering up an over-priced and over-packaged environmental disaster-- but the very water they are packaging comes straight out of the taps of some the most questionable water supplies in our nation. And the people of California and North Carolina, at least, are being poisoned in the process.
That's Walmart. America's poison.