Former LSU Bench Warmer Creates Site to Inform Bottled Water Consumers

John Hinds highlights the biggest misconception regarding bottled water. Additionally, John is providing a free report for consumers that details three ways they can get purified water right from their faucets.

Newark, NJ (PRWEB) January 18, 2008 -- John Hinds, former LSU football player and founder of The Free Water Report, is helping Americans start the New Year on the health kick with a free report on his website titled, "What's In Your Water? The Shocking Truth About Bottled Water and Tap Water and How You Can Protect Yourself!" The Free Water Report provides advice on how consumers can have a source of purified water flowing throughout their homes.

"The healthiest, best tasting water doesn't come in a bottle ... doesn't come from the tap ... it comes from a high quality in-home water purification system," says Hinds.

This is just something we can do to help, but we're a small organization

According to the International Bottled Water Association, the United States, which is the world's leading consumer of bottled water, spent over $10 billion dollars in 2006. The organization projects that U.S. sales of bottled water will exceed $45 billion in 6 years. Hinds says the main reason for such an increase in bottled water consumption is the bottled water companies that launch aggressive marketing campaigns to convince Americans that bottled water is purer and cleaner.

But that is not the case.

Hinds points to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which published the results of a four-year study in 1999, in which researchers tested more than 1,000 samples of 103 brands of bottled water. These researchers found that an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle -- sometimes further treated, sometimes not. In one case, one brand, advertised as "pure, glacier water," was found to be taken from a municipal water supply while another brand, flaunted as "spring water," was pumped from a water source next to a hazardous waste dumping site.

"While 'purified tap water' is arguably safer and purer than untreated tap water (depending on the purification methods), a consumer should expect to receive something more than reconstituted tap water for the outrageous prices of bottled water," says Hinds.

In the report, Hinds gives three ways Americans can get purified water from their faucet. One of the strategies costs as little as 9 cents a gallon. Hinds also includes a sample of an actual consumer confidence report from a municipal water department.

Hinds says some major cities have already caught on to the message that bottled water is not necessarily purer and cleaner. Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have asked their city employees to stop using bottled water or have banned it from city spending because the plastic and the shipping required to transport the water isn't worth the negative environmental side effects.

"This is just something we can do to help, but we're a small organization," says Hinds. "We are trying to help Americans make better choices regarding their health. Our bodies are over 70 percent water. So, the amount of water we drink and the quality of our water, to a large extent determines our health."

To learn more, go to www.TheFreeWaterReport.org.

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