The bottled water industry is a financially lucrative business that serves up 178 billion liters and brings in $62.3 billion annually. Consumers foot the bill by paying 10,000 times more for bottled versus tap water. Opponents are concerned, and for good

In the set of materials, the professor discusses the disadvantages of bottled water industry and provides several reasons for the support of her points. This discussion strengthens the information presented in the reading passage.

Firstly, the professor claims that bottled water are unsafe. According to statistics from an international environmental agency, such industries propagate misleading information about their products using fallacious advertising. Companies’ reports are not accurate. For example, it was revealed that a company used waters from a well in an industrial waste dump instead of mineral waters from the lakes in the mountains. In another investigation, a company used tap water. Likewise, the reading supports the fact that many companies use false advertising to trick the public, and the truth is that these companies are nothing more than bottled tab water.

Secondly, the professor explains that bottled water has critical effects on weak and immune persons. According to the professor, bottled water could cause very dangerous and lethal effects on people with physical disabilities, persons who suffer from cancer or HIV and other patients. Furthermore, several samples of bottled water were analyzed, and the results indicate that half of the samples contained harmful components. What’s more, level of bacteria and chemicals was higher than the standards in one third of the samples. In the same way, the reading states that bottled water poses a number of serious health risks. Plus, bottled water companies do not run proper testing for contaminants in their water, and that’s why many scandals have been seen in the last decades.

Thirdly, the professor posits that plastic bottles are dangerous and unhealthy too. Chemicals in the plastics can pollute the underground water within a storage time of ten weeks. Moreover, plastics do not decompose easily and endure in the nature for a long period of time. Therefore, the hazardous effects of plastics can change human hormones and lead to physical disorder in the next generations. Accordingly, the reading passage says use of plastic bottles leads to air pollution and contamination of groundwater, and not only exacerbates the situation, but also engenders more problems.