Earth is very fortunate to have ample water resources to supply its soaring number of inhabitants. Water is essential to one's existence thus it is recommended to drink at least eight glasses of water a day. In addition to the food we take, we need water to fuel our body. Unfortunately, the planet has been suffering from water pollution and now we are facing the consequences.

Alarming reports have been made saying that tap water is no longer safe to drink so various kinds of water filters have been available in the market. However, there are many of us who don't trust the effectiveness of water filters and still choose to go for the other alternative- bottled water.

Many of us are easily deceived by the TV and print ads that we see about bottled water. Bottled water companies claim that their products are free from impurities and safe for drinking. Are their claims true?

The common types of bottled water are distilled, sparkling, spring and mineral water. Recent studies agree that they are clean but not totally agreeable to them being safe. Some bottled water have a great amount of fluoride exceeding what's recommended for children thus causing teeth mottling. Some bottled water have more than 10 mg/liter of sodium which is detrimental to people with heart and kidney problems and those who are hypertensive. There's no manufacturing date on the bottled water so you have no idea how long the water has been in the bottle. With that, it has been said that leeching of the plastic bottle components into the water happens more with time. Some bottles still contain bacteria because they don't normally undergo decontamination. Aren't these enough to say that bottled water is not so healthy and safe?

Environmentalists have been trying to inform everyone that bottled mineral water is bad for the planet. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86% of the empty plastic water bottles in the United States become garbage. These plastic bottles will take 1000 years to decompose. Plastic bottles cannot be incinerated because it brings forth to toxic by-products like chlorine gas. In 2004, an Italian consumed almost 184 liters of bottled water in a year. In the same year, it is 169 liters for a Mexican and 137 liters for a Spanish. The 26 billion liter-record of Americans cannot be discounted. The popularity of bottled water continuous to grow so just imagine the number of plastic bottles that has to be produced to meet the needs of the world and the number of garbage it will amount to. Definitely, bottled mineral water damage our environment.

Some plastic bottles are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and some are from polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic obtained from crude oil. Making bottles for American consumption alone needs more than 1.5 million barrels of oil yearly. Just count in your head the number of cars it can fuel in a year.

Bottled water is transported by trains, trucks, airplanes and trucks for long distances. Aside from the water packaging, transportation also involves the burning of large amounts of fossil fuel. The data gathered by Earth Policy Institute in 2004 states that a Helsinki company shipped 1.4 million bottles of Finnish tap water 4,300 kilometers (2,700 miles) to Saudi Arabia.

If you frequent the supermarket, you'll notice that bottled water cost more compared to some basic commodities like milk. It can cost anywhere in between 240-10,000 times more expensive than tap water. After considering what has been previously noted, at $2.50 per liter; would you be willing to buy an overpriced bottled drinking water which could be bad for you?

You have a lot of bottled water options if you stay firm in your belief that bottled water is safe. There's the mineral enriched Evian of France, the Eldorado Natural Spring Water, Italian Sanfaustino, Ethos Water- the recently acquired by Starbucks, Dasani by Coca-Cola and Aquafina by PepsiCo. Whichever brand you choose, it's better if you have a look at the mineral contents and amounts of the product. And for the bottle, please find a way to recycle (if possible) and dispose the bottles properly.