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What is Tappening?
By Dale Guiducci
Those of us in our middle-aged years have had to learn nearly a whole new vocabulary just to get by - to compete with, work with and live with the younger generations. Words like Googling, texting, IMing, and YouTube are all part of my daily conversations around the office here, and also after work with my kids. Even with my wife.
Recently I learned a new word: "tappening ." Tappening is the name of the new movement encouraging people to not buy and/or drink bottled water. There is a web site (www.Tappening.com ) completely devoted to unearthing the truth about bottled water. The main article is, "Is That Bottled Water You're Sipping Really Worth Your Hard Earned Dollar?"
There's also a YouTube (there's that word again) video featured on the site that is comically done by Penn & Teller. Even though it has some very funny parts it really is no joke how the American public has been duped into spending $4 billion per year on something that comes right into our homes, and that we already pay for with our tax dollars.
The people at Tappening.com have come up with some estimates for the annual expense for each individual that drinks bottled water.
- Eight glasses of water per day is the recommended intake (10 ounces per serving)
- A 20-ounce bottle of water on average is $1.50.
- Four 20-ounce bottles per day = 8 glasses = $6 a day.
- $6 per day X 365 days = $2,190.
Making allowances for days when an individual may not drink the full recommended amount, for possible discounted prices when buying bottled water in bulk, and for the cost of an optional home water filter system (i.e.-Brita or PUR), the folks at Tappening conclude that the average annual estimated savings for an individual who switches from regular bottled water intake to tap water would be approximately $1,400 . For a family of four that regularly drinks bottled water, using the figures and allowances above, the average estimated savings would be $5,600 per year .
Now if bottled water really were all that it's cracked up to be we may be able to justify the expenditure. But in a study conducted by the National Resource Defense Council over 4 years and with 1000 different bottled waters (I didn't know there were 1,000 different bottled waters), roughly one third were found to violate the water quality standards of their own industry.
That brings us to regulation of bottled water. The mighty Food & Drug Administration oversees the bottled water industry but only those bottled waters that are sold across state lines. So, if I bottle water in California and only sell it in California, the FDA doesn't look at me at all. And even if they did, they only have a part-time person in the whole of the FDA that oversees the entire bottled water industry in this country.
This information needs to be heard. Every one of us should talk to everyone we know about bottled water. But, what I can't agree with is that tap water, without being filtered, is a safe solution for our hydration needs.
In an article posted on SkinInc.com it states: The American Council of Science and Health (ACSH) just posted today their "Top 10 Unfounded Health Scares of 2008." One of these unfounded scares is: "Pharmaceuticals can be found in our drinking water." ACSH's bottom-line conclusion is: "No negative health effects have ever been observed as the result of trace levels of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies. New technology allows us to find minute levels of scary-sounding chemicals in many substances we come in contact with every day, but such small amounts do not pose a health risk. Remember, the dose makes the poison!"
I'm sorry. I have no problem getting on board with a personal ban of bottled water. Since working with LIFE Ionizers™ I rarely use plastic bottles anymore anyway. But I simply can't accept, nor should I think the public be duped the other way, into accepting less than quality standards for drinking water. It's not OK to accept pharmaceuticals, chlorine, chloramines, arsenic, etc. in something that we’re supposed to put 80 ounces of in our bodies every day!
What Tappening.com needs to do to give their cause more legitimacy is to also tout the effectiveness of water filtration systems and even go to the extent of promoting the healthiest water possible which comes from water ionizers. The problem I see with causes like this is that they get so myopic on one theme, in this case "don't drink bottled water," that they almost go to the extent of twisting the facts in their direction, such as it's OK to drink tap water.
Perhaps that's our job however. Let's join the cause of making people aware of bottled water. Let's send them to sites like Tappening.com. But let's also go one step further and educate our customers, clients, friends, neighbors and family on the reality of municipal tap water.
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