Buyer Beware: Water in Boxes - But It's Just Tap Water (Like Dasani and Aquafina)

In response to the ecological impact all those bottled water plastic bottles have (they even have television commercials about this now), there's an innovative company over in Great Britain that has come up with a great new packaging gimmick:  they're selling water in BOXES.  You know, like milk and juice.  And wine.

Sounds like a smart thing, right? Well, that's until you learn that what they are packaging in the boxed water is just treated tap water.  London tap water, to be specific.  Just like Coca-Cola does with Dasani and Pepsi-Cola does with Aquafina.


So, while the box may solve the plastic issue, it's not doing much for the contents debate - the water itself.

In a study done by the Environmental Working Group of  the top 10 bottled waters sold, lots of bad things were found. Two of them were no different than tap water in their components. One had levels of bromodichloromethane at levels exceeding the legal limits for cancer-causing chemicals under California law, and EWG was planning to sue on that one. There was more bad stuff, too, in the other bottled waters - not one of them was found to be as promised on the package: clean, pure, safe. 

What About Your Own Tap Water?

Call your local water company (get the phone number on your bill) and ask them for their annual water quality report.  Under law, every water provider must check the contents of their water supply and then complete a report that details what they've found.  And you're entitled to see that report.

You can also check comparison studies of city tap water like the one using data collected by EWA and see where your town's water supply is listed.  I was happy to see that San Antonio, Texas, was number 7  --  one of the leaders in water quality.  Good news!!!

103 Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Stress

ARRRGGGGH!!!!  What do you do when you feel like pulling your hair out, or better yet, like this wet cat?  It happens to all of us, but stress is bad for you in so many ways, and living a simple life means living a peaceful one.

How to beat stress?  Okay, I didn't make up a new list on my own, because lots of great people out there have already made several excellent compilations of advice and guidance on stress reducers.  What I'm providing here is a subset of that stuff on the web -- lists that I found helpful, and a little bit different, coming from different sources.  Sure, they may have some overlap on the most obvious tips, but each has something good to share.

Here's 103 Stress Reducers, with my take on each of these lists:

6 Natural Stress Reducers
What you would expect -- music, laughing.  Some not so easy to do when you're stressed, like "think positive"....
52 Proven Stress Reducers
No big explanations, but some good stuff.  Like getting up 15 minutes earlier, that works for me.  Actually, I love this list.  Good stuff here - like don't hang around worrywarts, and unplugging your phone.
37 Ways to Calm Down Fast
I like the title here, a positive attitude right off the bat.  This list is from Reader's Digest, and it's got a few gems (although all these lists do overlap after awhile, of course).  Some tips I thought were really useful:  buy yourself flowers for your desk every week; several that deal with how you start your day -- rituals, etc.; finding a personal credo (I've got to find mine).
8 Immediate Stress Busters
This is a list made by physicians, and it's got good practical advice in it.  Like checking your posture, consciously slowing down your speech, and eating little snacks of nutritiously-dense foods along with drinking plenty of water.  And a fun one: plan on giving yourself a little reward at the end of the day.  Nice doctors. 

The Low Down on Living as an American Expatriate - Talk with Americans Living Overseas

If you're pondering living overseas for an extended time period, if not permanently, then you've probably been surfing the web looking at sites like International Living and Escape Artist.  That's good, they have lots of information.

However, ExpatFinder has created a list of 100+ Twitter accounts of real, live people living in all parts of the world as expatriates.  Connect with folks like these, and get the inside scoop on your dream destination:

dougiegyro http://twitter.com/dougiegyro 
Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Consultant, tech activist, expat American, translator, DJ

 

Kory Kessel http://twitter.com/kory

Location Paris, mostly

Chicago-born Cubs fan with roots in Texas and New York; it’s all about family, friends, music, food, art, and travel

Joel Smith http://twitter.com/MejicoJo

Location Lake Chapala, Mexico

Retired @ 46, Moved 2 Mexico. ♥ Suzy, Dance, Good Food, Travel, Sunsets, Sandy Beaches, Mexican People + Shih Tzus! Link tells U more

 

Julia Evans http://twitter.com/jooliagoolia

Location Buenos Aires, Argentina

american expat, content developer, soon-to-be librarian, fabulous person

 

I haven't contacted anyone on the list of 100 expats that the ExpatForum has collected, but I've selected the few samples above to demonstrate that ExpatForum has quite the crew there -- expats living all over the world, doing all sorts of things.  And with Twitter, it's so easy to start up a conversation, you should have lots of fun making friends with these folk!