A great John Stossel report that compares NYC tap water with 5 bottled waters, ranging from Evian to the Kmart brand.  It’s really surprising to hear how “unsafe” people believe their water is.  If they really feel that way, wouldn’t it make more sense to buy a simple filter?  They’d save money and eliminate the possibility of any leaching.  Do they realize that 25% of bottled water is just tap water anyway? Check out the 20/20 Bottled Water Taste Test

Check out this hilarious Bottled Water Taste Test by Penn and Teller on You Tube.  How easily people buy into “Mount Fuji Water!”

Sure wish he had a regular pair of shoes.

Washington University in St. Louis is cutting sales of disposable plastic water on campus.

“It costs society a lot more in energy and expense to bottle water than to have students head for the nearest hallway drinking fountain,” said Mat Malten, Washington University’s Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability.

Coca-Cola, maker of Dasani, will stop selling bottled water in almost all campus locations by the end of the fall semester.  A few locations will continue to carry the bottled water until next spring due to contractual obligations.

In an email interview with the Central Florida Future.com, Malten said “We estimated that, for the same amount of bottled water we purchased last year (more than $100,000), the cost of the same volume of tap water would have been less than $50.00.

Kudos to Matt Malten and Washington University for their common sense!!!

Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have identified two chemicals leaching from the commonly used polypropylene as the cause for ruining an experiment that they were conducting.  The chemicals are quaternary ammonium biocides and oleamide.

According to The Toronto Globe & Mail, the researchers were “conducting experiments on a human enzyme that is the target for drugs to treat Parkinson’s disease.”  In the course of their experiments, they encountered a “mystery substance” that was interfering with their tests.  After more investigation, they found it to be oleamide that was leaching from the polypropylene plastic tubes. It’s used to “improve the fluidity of molten plastic” and is fairly commonly found in many food containers such as yogurt cups and cream cheese containers. These containers are marked with the recycling code 5.

For more information on this topic, I’d recommend In Search of Safe Plastics by Olga Naidenko, Ph.D on Enviroblog, as well as the article in The Globe and Mail.

For us, it really isn’t an issue about whether what’s leaching is safe or not.  It’s about the safety of any leaching.  Why not make a simple choice to avoid it with a metal water bottle?

For the months of November and December, we’re offering free gift wrapping on all Sigg, Klean Kanteen, Guyot, and New Wave Enviro reusable water bottles and accessories!  Just enter the coupon code GIFT WRAP at checkout!

Check out the style guide in the New York Times for a great comparison of some terrific water bottles that are available. The bottles were used on a hike - so the author’s view is from what works best on the trail.

Personally, I like to use my Sigg when I’m driving because of the small opening.  If I’m traveling, I prefer my Klean Kanteen because it’s light and easy to clean.  For hiking and swimming, it’s my Guyot  because it’s indestructable and I love the available insert that allows me to chug splash free.

We, obviously, favor the metal choices and like what he had to say about them.  What do you think?

Be one of the first ten people to post a comment in the Reviews section of our blog at H2Ox2.com and receive a free gift!

The New York Times reports there is a rise in the number of children developing kidney stones, and one of the contributing factors is that children are not drinking enough water.

According to the article, most kidney stones are a result of oxalate binding to calcium in the urine.  “…the two biggest risk factors for this binding process are not drinking enough fluids and eating too much salt; both increase the amount of calcium and oxalate in the urine.”  Drinking sports drinks and soda are not the answer.

When you start looking at some of the nutrition data for what our kids are eating, it’s pretty easy to understand why they’re getting so much sodium.  Between the prepackaged and fast foods that have become standard fare for today’s busy kids, we also do them a disservice by providing them with as many sports drinks as they desire, thinking that they’re a healthy alternative to soda.  The sodium content of a liter of Gatorade is about 450 milligrams - which may be healthy for an active, sweaty athlete!  It doesn’t really serve as a replacement for water, does it?

According to the Mayo Clinic, the average 9-13 year old child should consume 1500 milligrams of sodium a day.  Consider a trip to McDonalds for a QuarterPounder with cheese (1190 mgs.), a large fries (350 mgs.) and a medium Powerade (130 mgs.)…Wow!  That’s a whopping 1670 milligrams of sodium in one meal.   Check other McDonalds’ nutrition facts by clicking on the link.

Dr. Alicia Neu, medical director of pediatric nephrology and the pediatric stone clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore says that “Drinking more water is the most important step in the prevention of kidney stones.”

Although obesity can be a contributing factor, Dr. Caleb Nelson, a urology instructor ad Harvard Medical School is quoted as saying “Of the school-age and adoescent kids we’ve seen, most of them appear to be reasonably fit, active kids.”

Encourage your child to be healthy with a personalized Klean Kanteen, or a really great Sigg bottle that fits their personality from H2Ox2.com.  Both are reusable and will provide years of safe and healthy drinking.

Want to see an innovative way to use all your old water bottles - now that you’ve Taken The Pledge and given them up?!?  Check out this website and see how some guy built a house from them.  Even better, see the chandelier that someone made from 1 liter bottles!  Plastic Bottle House

Rodin's Thinker understands the impact of a small, mindful choice!

Being mindful of our actions is something that I try to impress upon my kids. But it’s not just being mindful about the big things.  Small changes can add up to a huge difference.  If you’ve been buying one case of 1/2 Liter disposables for $6.00 a week, by switching to a reusable water bottle from H2Ox2.com, you would have…

Saved yourself $312.00. (I didn’t add in the 31 cents that the same amount tap water you would have   to pay for!)  If you don’t like your water, that will pay for a $118.00 filter and leave you lots of extra!

Saved 156 liters of oil! It takes 1/4 of a bottles volume in oil to produce it.

Saved at least 624 liters of water! To produce these bottles, estimates are that it takes between 2 and 3 times their volume in water waste.

Made a great choice - to deny our evergrowing landfills of more plastic waste.

Made a great choice to have one less bottle recycled!  While we support recycling, the better choice is to REDUCE!  Remember, they aren’t made into more plastic bottles…why do you think fleece is so cheap?

Think about it…Living a mindful life can be very inspiring.  It doesn’t take a huge change to make a huge difference.