The Almagest

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Karen Wissing [Click to enlarge]

Last week marked the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute's 18th documentary film festival. The first opening weekend, I was able to see several informative short films, one of which had my blood boiling as I left the historic Arkansas theater.

Directed by Stephanie Soechtig, Tapped is an inside look at the 11.1 billion dollar water bottle industry.

In an effort to convey to you how corrupted the industry is, I'll tell you this: the day before the film was shown, Nestle contacted the Hot Springs Documentary Film Institute from Switzerland and asked them not to show the documentary. Thankfully, the screening board rejected this request and a tiny, miniscule fraction of the population was able to see it, including myself, and I will never, ever purchase another bottle of water.

Bottle water has absolutely no government oversight whereas tap water is not only regulated by municipalities, but it is also regulated by the FDA and the EPA. In fact, bottled water companies are not required to release any information to the public, including what is used to make the bottle.

Corpus Christi, TX is home to Flint Hills, the world's second largest petro chemical plant. The people of Corpus Christi have 84 percent more birth defects than the entire state due to the amount of chemicals released by the production of water bottles. The most deadly substance used in the making of the bottles is Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a chemical which contains high doses of benzene, a leading cause of cancer.

The residents living near Flint Hills are not only suffering from poor health, but they cannot sell their homes in order to escape the toxic exposure. As long as our society consumes bottled water, these people will be the silent victims.

Each resident Soechtig interviewed clearly wanted people to know what was going on; "we, as a society, need to protect our most vulnerable," said one resident, while gripping a breathing apparatus.

Corpus Christi residents are not the only people in danger; consumers are equally threatened, yet in a slightly different way. Besides paying 1,900 times the amount of tap water for that plastic bottle, consumers are also being exposed to contaminants such as toluene, a chemical found in gasoline and paint thinner; styrene, another cancer-causing agent; and phthalate, a chemical which causes birth defects.

In addition, the five gallon plastic jugs often seen in offices and hospitals are made with Bisphenol A (BPA), one of the most toxic chemicals on this planet. Exposure to BPA can lead to diabetes, breast cancer, liver disease, prostate cancer and low sperm count. When Soechtig interviewed the one person in the FDA who oversees all bottled water companies, she asked the FDA rep about the amount of BPA produced for America's consumption. The FDA's reply? Nothing; the man accompanying the rep to the interview comes from behind her chair to say, "if we would have known you were going to ask about BPA, we wouldn't have given you this interview."

There is so much more information in this film. It's quite upsetting, and I urge you to visit the website www.tappedthemovie.com. "If only we had been conditioned to think, what's in the plastic?"

Karen Wissing

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