Hi, okay i've read that plastic from the bottled water over time leeches into the water and is not recommended for drinking. My question is...if shtf and I had a stack of bottled water that was say 1.5 years old, how bad is it for you to drink.

Is it better for you to find a local river or just drink the 1.5 yr old water stack you have on hand...i think the bottled water is cleaner than the river option.
Also what about vodka? all my bottles are plastic, are they gonna go to sh#t over time as well?

thx.

Distillation is the key ..Just boil the water and re-condense the vapor. You should be fine then

[edit on 28-9-2009 by VitalOverdose]

difficult to find now clean water in the shops, all bottles contain some sorts of 'ingredients', i look like a nut harvesting labels in shop, get a filter and squeeze a lemon its only safe option

I just posted a comment about the values of the old timers and how they made due.
Glass bottles are the old way, and they are still the best way of preserving non contaminated goods.
Water is the easiest of all.
Start out with clean water, boil it in the glass, and seal while still hot.
Shelf life=practically indefinitely.

On a side note. when my pops sold his house and moved on, we cleaned out the basement and much to our delight we found a jar of pickled eggplant. It was 12 years old. I had helped my grandmother make it when I was a kid. I hid on in the basement and forgot about it.
Still 100% intact, and the best I ever had.

Well technically all bottled water is bad. Most bottled water is actually slightly acidic. making the water positive. since human-beings are positive, the body likes negative.

Google kagen water it might clear a few things up about water.

From my understanding most leeching occurs when the plastic bottles are heated up... so, bottles left in car during summer months, bottles left in direct sunlight etc...

Leeching is a worry for me, with regards to the wider health implications, but in a survival situation... I’ll take whatever I can get my hands on.

Besides, you don’t know what type of survival situation you will be facing; it could be that all the local fresh water supplies have become contaminated and dangerous to drink. I assure you that dehydration will kill you far quicker than any leeching the may have occurred.

I have 40 litres of water stored in plastic bottles. I will drink them in an emergency... However, if I jump in my car and see a small bottle of water I’d forgotten to remove for a few days, I discard it.

Oh... the other thing I heard is leeching is also caused by people constantly reusing water bottles.



Oh... and another other thing hehe... reticledc is correct... glass bottles are best... we have some glass bottles that we reuse for travel. And we also have a very large collection of glass jars. Glass is great

[edit on 29-9-2009 by Muckster]

I have done some study on this, leaching has not been an issue..
We used 2 liter bottles and 1 gal. containers, the only thing we do that I never hear of , is putting a teaspoon of bleach in each bottle.
When and if you need to use the water just open it let it set 4-8 hours and the bleach evaporates off, so if there are impurities they are at least clean impurities...

Bottled water from the store has a pretty much indefinite shelf life. It is boiled and sealed in the bottle at the bottling plant in a process similar to what reticledc explained.

When people talk about "leeching" from plastic bottles they are referring to a chemical called Bisphenol A, or BPA. Canada's health department stated that BPA "may" pose a risk to infants drinking from plastic bottles. The media kinda glommed onto it and as a result many plastic container manufacturers stopped using BPA in their manufacturing process. There's never been any formal study, or real risk to health proven or disproved. There has been some suggestion that our increased use of disposable plastics may be causing excess BPA in landfills and that could be an environmental concern.

Your bottled water will not turn into a poisonous chemical by storing it in a plastic container for a few months or even years. I bought a case of cheapo brand bottled water once and left it in the hatch of my Jeep for over 2 years. Went through two winters (freezing) and two summers (100+ here in KS) in the back of my car. We took a trip to the lake and drank it -- tasted a bit stale but we're all still alive!

I'll give you the advice I give anyone who's stocking up for SHTF . . . rotate our your stock regularly. Don't just buy supplies and leave them in a closet or storeroom and wait for a disaster. When you run out of bottled water, buy a new case, stick it in your stockpile and use up the oldest case in your stockpile. That way everything stays fresh!

Keeping bottled water in the car.

Someone pointed out that leaching occurs quickly when a water in a plastic bottle is warmed up or in direct sunlight.

I was thinking that If I kept my bottles of water in a cool bag / box, it should maintain a almost constant temperature as the bag / box is insulated and thus slowing down the leaching.

What do you guys think ?