Silver and Gold Magazine Winter 2107-2018 | Page 21

BRISTOL STOOL SCALE
(AKA: Poo Chart)
T his chart is a medical aid designed to classify
human feces into seven categories. Sometimes referred
to as the “Meyers Scale”, it was developed by Dr. Ken
Heaton at the University of Bristol, in 1997.
TOP 5 REASONS TO
CHOOSE FILTERS OVER
BOTTLED WATER
– By EWG (Environmental Working Group: www.ewg.org)
I f you’re concerned about contaminants in the tap
water you drink every day, you’re not alone. We all
deserve to know what we’ll be putting in our bodies
when we turn on the tap.
Type 1
But if you want safer water for yourself and your
family, bottled water isn’t the solution - not for your
pocketbook, not for your health and certainly not
for our planet. Your best option for cleaner, healthier
drinking water on the go is filtered tap water and a
reusable glass or stainless steel container. Here are
five reasons why you should say no to bottled
water and choose filtered instead.
Type 2
Type 3
1. Cost: Tap water costs about $.002 per gallon
- that’s two-hundredths of a penny - while a litre
of water from the cooler in your local store costs
at least $2 before tax. Canadians drink close to 3
billion litres of bottled water per year.
Type 4
2. Quality – Laboratory testing has found all
sorts of nasty stuff in popular brands of bottled water
- disinfection byproducts, industrial chemicals,
prescription drugs and even bacteria. And unlike
your local tap water utilities, which are required
to test for contaminants each year and disclose the
results to the public, the bottled water industry can
hide the results of its testing.
Type 5
3. The bottle itself – PET plastics - the kind
used to make plastic water bottles and marked with
a “1” code on the bottom - can contain dozens of
chemical additives, manufacturing impurities and
breakdown byproducts. That’s more than 80 additional
contaminants that could be leaching into your water.
Type 6
4. Trash – Less than 32 percent of PET plastic
bottles and jars are actually recycled in the plants.
Type 7
5. Wasted energy – It takes up to 2,000
times more energy to produce bottled water than
tap water. It takes energy to make the bottles, fill
them with water and ship them to your local market
- sometimes over great distances.
Illustrations: Kyle Thompson
Buy a good water filter, and help save our planet! •
Silver & Gold Magazine ~ Winter 2017/18
21