Bottling Health

Every time I go to a grocery store or am waiting for a bus, I see people lugging around cases of bottled water. It's especially bad near McMaster University where students, spoonfed the idea that Hamilton is the most polluted city on earth, drink exclusively from bottles of water. I wonder if the water fountains at McMaster University are even ever used.

Credit advertisers for making a market where there should be none. And it's growing all the time. Unfortunately bottled water is not the wonderous product it seems. Some bottled water contains deadly toxins, presumably from its plastic wrapping. Some bottled water is just tap water straight from a municipal service. So one wonders what the actual benefit of bottled water is. Apparently it's the dividend in dollars that companies hand over to their shareholders.

As an aside, here's an interesting quote from Health Canada. " Yes. You can store large quantities of bottled water in a basement or cold storage area in case of problems with municipal supplies, in case of a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tornado, or in case of war or nuclear fall-out. The water should be disinfected in well-sealed containers, kept in cool, dark storage areas and changed every year. Bottled water manufacturers indicate that their product has a two-year shelf-life." After a nuclear war, according to a confident Health Canada, expect to find bottled water annually at your local grocery store. Otherwise it might not be safe. Please ignore the boils on your skin.

Yesterday I got into a conversation about the future of municipal water given the growth of the bottled water industry. My argument was that if, in ten years, no one but the very poor drink their water exclusively from the tap then the city will have no reason to maintain a safe system; a public good is only valid when everyone buys in. As an alternative to the current system, I expect the middle and upper classes will install their own filtration systems before water enters their houses so that it is safe for watering their lawns and plants and showering and washing their hands; I expect that their pets will receive bottled water, nothing less for a pure bred poodle.

But, my friend replied, the middle and upper classes have a sense of decency and wouldn't let the system decline. But if they are not participating in that system then what use is there for them to demand a certain standard? And we all know how powerful a voice the poor speak with in Hamilton. Of course, those condemned to drinking from the tap will be subject to illness and disease. Therefore they would be a strain on Canada's healthcare system. Since we all pay for this system then surely this would mean that the middle and upper classes have a reason, however selfish, to speak up. Unfortunately in this future I expect that their private health plans will expand to cover more than dental and physiotherapy. Healthcare will be a poorly funded service for the squalid masses. And then the poor will realize that to survive they will need to steal from the middle and upper classes. Hence the need for private security and gated communities. Canada reborn in our southern neighbour's image.

I don't want to sound defeatist and claim that this future will come to pass whether or not we fight it or not. I pledge to never drink bottled water unless my life depended on it and even then reluctantly. From what I read though this picture seems quite plausible. How long before some intelligent corporate executive at Nestle decides to sell us "clean air"? How quickly would Hamiltonians gobble up that particular service while obliviously driving in their hummers to the corner store?