I love water. I also enjoy sleeping. But I’ve always wondered why I don’t usually need water during the seven hours I sleep at night.

A recent article I read noted the physics behind why we don’t get too dehydrated at night and I’ve posted it for your viewing pleasure below.

Brain cells collude to keep animals hydrated while they sleep, which prevents nightly dehydration or trips to the toilet, according to researchers.

Neurophysiologists Eric Trudel and Charles Bourque at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, suggest the body’s internal clock helps to regulate a water-storing hormone.

(more…)

Recently several groups have called the governement out on the carpet about their frivilous spending on bottled water.  Corporate Accountability International cited that in 2008 state agencies spent over $525,000 on bottled water 5-gallon jugs.  While smaller cities and towns service fewer people, their cost could be less than $100. But it still begs the question – how are we supposed to feel good about our water if the government doesn’t even drink the tap water?!?  Leading by example is always the first step when trying to help initiate Ban the Bottle campagins.  Take San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, St. Louis and Seattle – all have lead by example and made it illegal to spend government money on bottled water.  Support your public water system – ban the bottle!

Read the entire article here – http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/regional/x1439500979/Group-criticizes-state-for-spending-more-than-500-000-on-bottled-water

Here is a great starting list of reasons why bottled water isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

1. Bottled water isn’t a good value
2. No healthier than tap water
3. Bottled water means garbage
4. Bottled water means less attention to public systems
5. The corporatization of water

See all the explanations at: http://lighterfootstep.com/2008/05/five-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water/

A Fashion Trend Meets a Watery Grave – take some to time to read this interesting Wall Street Journal opinion article about the demise of “fancy water” by Eric Felton.  

“For a little while, carrying a bottle of water was the very symbol of fashionable health-consciousness. But fashions change: Now bottled water is the eco-equivalent of last year’s frock. And so none other than the Environmental Working Group was on Capitol Hill last month mounting a full-throated campaign against the stuff. The thrust was that, hey, if you run tap water through a filter, it isn’t really so bad after all—and quite the bargain too!”

My previous post offered a few ideas about what to do with old plastic bottles you may have at your workplace or home.  Crafty Reuse has gone a step further, giving us “Ten Projects for Plastic Bottles”.  Here’s one of my favorites:

Re-Nest’s Trend Watch highlights plastic bottle lighting ideas. There are a few that would be easy to do yourself. You can also try drilling small holes into the caps of small water or juice bottles and stringing them on Christmas lights. You can decorate the bottles with paint and sparkly things for some extra pizzazz!

“Ten Projects for Plastic Bottles” [via Crafty Reuse]

Bottled water waste continues to be a major concern for our world.  In 2006, Americans used nearly 50 billion plastic water bottles and sent nearly 38 billion to landfills.  If laid end to end, that’s enough bottles to travel from the Earth to the Moon and back 10 times.

Looking to make an environmentally friendly impact at your office?  Here are 9 ways to reduce plastic bottle waste at your workplace.

1. Initiate a Company-Wide Ban on Single-Use Water Bottles

Imagine a workplace free of plastic bottle waste filling up waste containers.  Encourage your company to consider a  ban on single-use water bottles thus becoming more green and sustainable.    Having trouble getting the management to agree to such an egregious suggestion?  Sell them on the idea that instituting something like this will be great for PR and make your company a bright spot in the green business community.

2. Prominently Display Recycling Containers Throughout Your Facility

Okay.  I get it.  Maybe some companies out there aren’t quite ready for a complete ban on bottles.  Well there’s still hope through recycling.  Did you know that recycling one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space?  Take the initiative to get a company-wide recycling program started by placing recycling containers throughout your office.  Send co-workers memos noting the new containers and why recycling is important.   For a more detailed look at starting an office recycling program, check out Wake County’s Guide to Starting a Recycling Program.

3. Install a Sustainable Water Dispenser

Forget single-use bottled water and start using a sustainable water dispenser to fill up your sports bottle and meet the needs for hydration.  The HydrationStation water dispenser features a touch-free, hygienic interface with built-in filter technology to make tap water taste great.  Water dispensers like the HydrationStation can save your company thousands of dollars on bottled water costs while creating a more eco-friendly work environment.  (more…)

Fact or Fiction:

Drinking out of a plastic water bottle left in a hot car can lead to cancer?

That’s the buzz on the Internet.  It’s convient, fresh and clean.

Or is it?

“The problem with water bottles is, it’s made of plastic,” said Dr. Ravi Patel with Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center. ”And there’s different kinds of plastic. Plastics actually release different chemicals in different situations.”

Dr. Patel, founder of the Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center, says heat can release cancer-causing toxins, which leak from plastic into water and even food.

There are two chemicals he says pose the biggest threat.

“Dioxin and another one,  BPA, Bisphenol A, These two products are connected to plastics and that has been associated with a whole host of health issues including birth defects, cancer. A variety of things,” said Dr. Patel.

17News contacted Dr. Patel after receiving an email that suggested leaving bottled water in your car is very dangerous. The email said plastic water bottles have been been identified as the most common cause of high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue. (more…)

We all know bottled water is an environmental no-no because it generates plastic and because energy is required to ship it around, but is it any healthier?  Many people feel guilty about it, but want to make sure they’re not drinking a bunch of chemicals.

Sarah Schmidt from Mother Nature Network wrote a great response to this question in a recent post:

“There’s really no reason to think bottled water is healthier or more pure than tap. In fact, recent testing suggests that bottled water is, in the case of some brands, just tap water poured into plastic. Beverage companies aren’t required to disclose the origins of their water, or the results of any in-house testing they do for contaminants (except in California). That means that they can pretty much fill those resource-and-energy-hogging plastic bottles with any old H20, slap a picture of a mountain on it, and charge you an arm and a leg for it. The Environmental Working Group just tested 10 brands of bottled water and found everything from arsenic to chlorine to fertilizer residue in them. Some brands were completely indistinguishable from municipal supplies, and contained byproducts of the disinfectants used in tap water. Funny thing, that.

The bottled water industry, not surprisingly, contends that a study of 10 brands is not big enough to represent the market as a whole, but the fact is that there’s no law preventing companies from bottling ordinary tap water and selling it as something more special. Your tap water may be just as good as bottled water—and it’s literally 1,900 times cheaper on average. If you want to make sure you’re drinking the purest water possible, you’re better off investing in one of the dozens of kinds of filters on the market. And yeah, we know, sometimes you’re away from home, you’re thirsty, you forgot your trusty reusable bottle, and you find public drinking fountains more reprehensible than the thought of increasing your carbon footprint a smidgen. Sometimes it does make sense to go for that bottle of water. We won’t tell. No need for massive guilt trips. Just keep in mind that you’re only paying for convenience, not for exceptional purity of the water.”

[via MNN]