Fwd: [SoFlaVegans] Pepsi admits Aquafina comes from tap water

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Pepsi admits Aquafina comes from tap water

by Mike Adams

August 2 2007

 

http://www.newstarget.com/z021962.html

http://www.newstarget.com/021962.html

 

It's a great marketing gimmick: A bottle of water with

a clean, blue label showing images of snow-capped

mountains and the claim, " Pure water, perfect taste. "

That's the image created by Pepsico's Aquafina brand

of water, and many consumers leap to the incorrect

conclusion that Aquafina is sourced from mountain

spring water.

 

In reality, Aquafina comes from tap water. Yes, the

same water you get when you turn on your kitchen

faucet. Of course, Aquafina is filtered, purified and

perhaps even enhanced with trace amounts of added

minerals, but it's certainly not mountain spring

water. It's just processed tap water -- the same stuff

that fills your toilet bowl when you flush.

 

Both the International Bottled Water Association

(IBWA) and the FDA believe there's really no need to

require bottled water manufacturers to admit their

products come from tap water. No surprise there --

both these organizations routinely act to protect the

interests of powerful corporations, and when it comes

to bottled water, the biggest companies are often

those sourcing the lowest quality water (such as tap

water).

 

This idea that consumers should not be informed their

high-priced bottled water is really just filtered tap

water is consistent with the aims of food, drug and

beverage corporations, who almost universally agree

that consumers should be given less information, not

more, about the products they're swallowing. Over the

last several decades, corporations have vigorously

opposed truth in labeling laws and regulations,

including those requiring the labeling of trans fatty

acids, sodium content and even ingredients lists! (If

the food corporations had their way, all ingredients

would be considered " proprietary formulas " and not

listed on the label at all.)

 

This bottled water issue brings to light the apparent

deceptive practices of some of the largest suppliers

of bottled water products. By avoiding the honest

labeling of the source of their water while relying on

snow-capped mountain imagery, these companies quietly

mislead consumers into thinking their water products

are from a pristine, natural source such as a mountain

spring.

 

CAI pressures PepsiCo to tell the truth

PepsiCo only agreed to tell the truth on their bottled

water labels after being pressured by Corporate

Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit

organization that helps protect consumers from

corporate abuse. See their website at

http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org

 

CAI rallied consumers from around the world to

complain to PepsiCo about the current labeling of

Aquafina, and thousands of consumers slammed PepsiCo's

phone lines so hard that the company was forced to

shut down call center operations. CAI told NewsTarget

that within 30 minutes after the call-to-action

announcement went live, PepsiCo's consumer phone lines

were no longer being answered and would not allow

callers to leave voice mails. Pepsi executives

reportedly held an emergency meeting and made a

decision to add the phrase, " Public water source " to

Aquafina labels.

 

Reluctantly admitting a small part of the truth

Even then, the phrase " public water source " isn't very

descriptive. To some people, the phrase simply implies

that Aquafina is itself a public water source. It's

not the same as admitting, " Aquafina comes from tap

water, " which would be a far more honest way to label

the product. But PepsiCo seems to have no interest in

advertising the source of their Aquafina product, and

my guess is that the " public water source " text on the

label will be really small and difficult to read. It's

much like the labeling of side effects of prescription

drugs: They bury the bad news somewhere that most

consumers won't ever look.

 

Aquafina is currently the top-selling bottled water

brand in the United States. According to CAI, 4 out of

5 consumers now drink bottled water, and 1 out of 5

drink it as their sole water source! (Gee, that's a

lot of plastic going to landfill, too...)

 

The bottles used to package bottled water are almost

always made from plastics containing bisphenol-A

(BPA), a carcinogenic chemical that often leaches into

the water and gets swallowed by consumers. Click here

to read our articles on BPA, a chemical widely

believed to contribute to certain cancers. This

contamination factor, however, is true for all

products stored in plastic bottles, not merely water.

Sports drinks, sodas, fruit drinks and even " healthy "

smoothie drinks packaged in plastic all share a common

risk of BPA contamination.

 

Bottled water vs. public water infrastructure

The widespread shift towards bottled water products is

increasingly causing consumers to lose faith in public

water infrastructure, which ultimately leads to public

reluctance to support investment in public water

supplies. This concerns many cities who are worried

that a lack of public support will cause funding for

water infrastructure to erode.

 

These people tend to describe treated municipal water

as remarkably pristine and safe for human consumption.

In my opinion, however, tap water should never be

swallowed without filtering it, since tap water

contains scary levels of toxic chemicals such as

chlorine and fluoride, a dangerous water additive

chemical often contaminated with arsenic. (Click here

to learn the truth about water fluoridation.)

 

So I wouldn't drink from the public water supply in

the first place, but neither do I rely on bottled

water. I use a water filtration system to clean tap

water before I drink it. (Coincidentally, this is

similar to what PepsiCo does when creating Aquafina

water, except PepsiCo uses plastic bottles, where I

only drink out of glass or stainless steel.)

 

You can get clean public water in places like Hawaii,

Oregon and anywhere that's close to the mountains, but

most folks in first world nations are getting tap

water that's far from pristine. The public water

infrastructure in the U.S. may be among the best in

the world, but that's not saying much. I won't even

shower in U.S. public water without using a chlorine

filter on my shower head. (Recommended brand: Aquasana

at http://www.aquasana.com )

 

My view on PepsiCo

Since this story has much to do with PepsiCo, I

thought I would offer my personal opinion on this

corporation. In my opinion, PepsiCo is a highly

destructive corporation that is partially responsible

for obesity, diabetes, depression and bone disorders

among hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Through its aggressive (and deceptive, in my opinion)

marketing campaigns, lack of corporate ethics and

ready willingness to exploit human beings for profit,

PepsiCo has risen to be one of the most financially

profitable yet ethically bankrupt organizations on the

planet.

 

If PepsiCo were to disappear from the face of the

earth tomorrow, humanity would be healthier the very

next day. PepsiCo's brands include: (followed by my

opinion statement about that particular brand)

 

Frito-Lay: Dangerous junk food that contributes to

obesity, heart disease, cancer, depression and other

serious diseases.

 

Pepsi-Cola: Toxic beverages that destroy bone mineral

density and poison consumers with chemical sweeteners

in diet drinks.

 

Gatorade: Crap sports drinks that contain artificial

colors made from petrochemical derivatives.

 

Tropicana: A low-end fruit juice brand engaged in

deceptive labeling for many of its products.

 

Quaker: This is perhaps the only tolerable brand in

the PepsiCo portfolio. Oatmeal is essentially good for

you, although instant oats and all the sugars found in

many oatmeal products make it a rather high-glycemic

food that's not recommended for most people

(especially diabetics or obese people).

 

Put it all together and you have a collection of some

of the least healthy foods and beverages on the market

today. When future historians examine today's

epidemics of obesity and diabetes, they will no doubt

scrutinize the role of companies like PepsiCo and

Coca-Cola, both of which are partly to blame for

modern disease epidemics. Both companies, by the way,

continue to engage in routine marketing of junk foods

and sodas to children.

 

Pepsico is a corporation that won't even list the

acrylamide content in their fried foods. Nor will it

publicly admit that high-fructose corn syrup has any

link whatsoever to obesity. PepsiCo, in my opinion, is

a corporation living in a deviant reality, unwilling

to take responsibility for its role in poisoning the

population through its toxic food and beverage

products.

 

That's my personal opinion of PepsiCo, its brands and

its products. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything made

by PepsiCo. I have no desire to financially reward

this company by purchasing its products. If anything,

we should all be boycotting PepsiCo products (and

Coca-Cola, for that matter) and getting our water from

somewhere else.

 

When traveling through airports, of course, I am

sometimes forced to buy Aquafina or Dasani, as nothing

else is available. This is the only time you'll ever

see me drinking out of a PepsiCo bottle.

 

If I were in charge around here, I would immediately

ban all advertising of junk foods, sodas, snack foods,

cigarettes, pharmaceuticals and other harmful

substances. It's the only sane thing to do if we care

about the future of our children. Of course, such

advertising bans will never actually take place

because corporations run the government. See my

CounterThink Cartoon, Government of the People for a

humorous depiction of this current state of affairs.

 

And as far as Pepsi's water brand goes, I think it

should be renamed to AquaFib.

 

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