Hysteria! With all the bottled waters and "antibacterial" lotions and potions that have surfaced in the past few year, are people really getting sick less? No.

It is marketing genius!

Alisa, Marketing genius yes. Back in 1979 on my first trip to Europe I could not believe people bought water in bottles. Now its everywhere in the US. We have one of the safest drinking water standards in the world.

I can just here the laughs when some schmo at a bottling company in the US suggested bottling tap water and selling it, and at at a much higher price than gasoline!!! Marketing genius.

Try going to the FDA website and look at the warning letters issued for all kinds of places, including the airlines....FDA.gov

Suzanne....doesn't matter if it's in a can or bottle. The manufacturer still has to make the juice! Same w/ soft drinks like Coke, Pepsi, etc. A lot of juices are made from concentrate & water. Ditto for soft drinks. So...I am wondering where does that water come from? Is it "tap water" in the plant? "Boiled water from the tap" in the juice or soft drink plant? I doubt that it's "bottled water"!!! I don't mean to bug you about this....it's just that I have always wondered where the water comes from....in any edible/drinkable product.

I don't want to start panic attachs, but my daughter is taking an Enviromental Science class at UW in Water Management and when I started asking her about it she said, "Mom, you don't even want to know."

OK, but after "nagging" her about it, I said I wanted to know the safest water we could drink (we only drink filtered water), she said that we should get a newer filter and THEN boil that water.

I asked her about bottled water and she said that most of them aren't any better than tap water.

So, from now on, I plan to take my own filtered and boiled water on planes...

(Maybe the French have it right--just drink red wine!)

artlover, I think your daughter is being a bit of an alarmist. Unless you are living near a some kind of hazaradous waste dump or in a heavy industry community you probably don't have to boil water. this isn't sixteenth century London!

Please ask you daughter this question: Does "filtered water" take out biological contaminents which pose any real threat to me? When she says yes, just keep on boiling everything and forget about filtering. You are wasting your time and gas bill IMO.

re Alisa's posting...I saw a news story a few months back about the dramatic increase in peanut allergies in this country (something I'm very aware of because I work lunches at a grade school). They really don't know what's causing it. But one theory is that, because of all the antibacterial soaps, etc., children aren't able to build up immunities properly.

To: jor, who asked where in the world, did I get my information?

From: Gene: The Internet of course!

Jor: Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, do you know of a bottled water from another state that is better than Poland Springs?

People have been drinking PS water extracted from natural springs, deep within the wilderness of Maine, since 1845.

The plastic recyclable code on the bottom of their bottle is #1, the very best code available.

Fiji water is bottled on a remote island in the chain and is acclaimed as the most pure bottled water available.

If you have some information that disclaims this data please let us know?

Artlover, do you really boil and filter all of the water you drink? How do you wash your vegetables or brush your teeth?

Gene, yes I do. It comes out of my own well and goes in a (jug) then into my refigerator. I have had my water tested and it has had very high ratings. People here have been drinking well water farther back than 1848. Poland springs doesn't have the market cornered!

Why are you excluding Alaska in your competition? Pretty mountains, trees and streams do not necessarily make for pure water. Contaniments both environmental and biological can be found anywhere in the world. Any Hydrologist will confirm that.

I thought this thread was about the drinking water on the plane. The FAs are obviously not adding "plane water" to the cans of juice that I see them open. I've drunk canned sodas, juices and beer from Thailand and Mexico, though I won't use the tap water there to brush my teeth. I've never had any problems drinking the canned stuff, but maybe my stomach & immune system are just better than most (?)

I agree with Patrick about drinking tap water. People in many 3rd world countries drink their own tap water without any problems, but it would make us Americans sick because we haven't built up the kind of antibodies to kill whatever bacteria is in there, and the locals have.

jor, If my daughter has time (she's on a full scholarship, is taking a full load and working 30 hours a week!), I'll ask her to respond to your query.

Alisa, yes I use tap water to wash veggies and brush my teeth--I'm really not the kind of person who goes "overboard", but we do drink lots of water, so I don't think it's "going overboard" to take a bit of precaution.

LOL mikemo thinks the same way my Yankee does, he only drinks wine
I will drink a Bloody Mary or just Coke or bottled water.

Jor: I agree private well water, can be far superior to any municipal or bottled water sources. If you have a private well with good-tasting pure water than you are truly blessed.

The problem with private wells is that most people don't want to be bothered with all of the time and expense involved: Yearly testing for purity; pump maintenance; filtering systems etc.

Most people would rather just pay the city/town water bill and/or buy the bottled water and leave it at that.

I excluded Hawaii and Alaska because even though they may have fantastic bottled water products I don't think companies located there would make a profit shipping their water to the mainland. They don't have the marketing appeal of Fiji water or Evian from France.

For Suzanne: You are correct, this post was about airline water and I apologize for digressing. I just thought that water is so important to our lives, that I should add what I learned to the discussion.

Scarlett, Yankee, IMHO, has excellent taste. Skip the water and drink the wine!!

This caution is extremely important for parents who are travelling with their babies that may require airline water to make baby formula. If the water is contaminated baby can get very sick.

The presence of coliform bacteria in the water is an indicator that there may be fecal contamination. If you need water for the baby formula the best is ask for it to be boiled first.

This is just another reason to drink beer during a long flight. All the water in beer is cold filtered.

LoveItlay,

Wouldn't all parents who fly with infants know to use bottled water..no matter where they go ?

I would think baby formula would be made/mixed ahead of the flight -- one would think.

I agree with the above. Drink the wine and beer and have no fear.

Scarlett, I'm A yankee, wine drinking
dandy, born on the 4th night of being randy.