Controversy analysis - Essay Example

The bottled water industry opposes the views that their products are not environmentally friendly. They stress the efforts of the industry to recycled bottled waters, and they underscore that many other consumer products have larger ecological footprints than bottled water (Foley). Should bottled water be banned in local communities with safe tap water? Tap water has been criticized for quality issues, and so several individuals and organizations insist that the public is entitled to access to bottled water.

Stephen C. Edberg, director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and professor of Laboratory Medicine, Internal Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Yale University, explains why bottled water is the preferred choice for many citizens. He notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assessed that tap water has limited filtration and disinfection processes, so it advised the public that: “Because you cannot be sure if your tap water is safe, you may wish to avoid tap water, including water or ice from a refrigerator ice-maker, which is made with tap water and/or drink bottled water.

” If the CDC already knows that tap water is not entirely safe, it is clear why many people continue to buy bottled water. Furthermore, Edberg shows that bottled water is safer than tap water because the former goes through several filtration processes. He stresses that while tap water undergoes less specialized filter and disinfection processes bottled water, such as adding chlorine only, bottled water employs “a more controlled process that can avoid external contamination from the source through the bottling process.

” Bottled waters are also hygienically sealed, which seals in freshness and quality, while tap water cannot make the same claims (Edberg). Banning bottled water can expose citizens to