Made me think hours later, as this blog entry sat on my TO DO list, that Fijians don”t have this problem. Fiji is one of the farthest places away from industrial pollution. I bet Fijian Mommies get to teach their rain lesson outside without thinking about pollution and acid rain. Maybe the warm tropical weather helps ward off paranoid Daddies too!

FIJI Water comes from an artesian aquifer rich in silica.

One of the qualities that makes FIJI Water so special is its high silica content. FIJI Water starts as rain and is filtered through volcanic rock, which is rich in silica, for over a hundred years until it reaches the aquifer. FIJI Water”s incomparable taste — the soft mouth feel and silky texture — is a result of its unique mineral profile, with high silica and low calcium and magnesium content. (While calcium and magnesium are important to our diet, high levels in water can make it taste “hard” and unpleasant.)

And a recent study indicates that silica in water may reduce Alzheimer’s risk. Here’s more info, courtesy of Reuters Health.

Aluminum, silica in water affect Alzheimer’s risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Higher levels of aluminum in drinking water appear to increase people’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, whereas higher levels of silica appear to decrease the risk, according to French investigators.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a multifactorial disease, and aluminum concentrations in drinking water may have an effect on cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Virginie Rondeau told Reuters Health.

The results of some studies suggest that silica reduces the oral absorption of aluminum or increases the excretion of this metal.

Rondeau, at the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in Bordeaux, and her colleagues examined associations between exposure to aluminum or silica from drinking water and the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease among elderly subjects followed for 15 years.

Daily aluminum intake of at least 0.1 milligram was associated with greater cognitive decline during the course of the study, the team reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Subjects with a high daily aluminum intake had a 2.26-fold increased risk of dementia, the researchers note. On the other hand, for every 10 milligram-per-day intake of silica, the odds of developing dementia dropped by 11 percent.

“Further studies are needed to settle the debate over the link between aluminum or silica in drinking water and neurologic disorders and cognitive impairment,” the investigators conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, February 15, 2009.

In the spirit of this FIJI Water blog entry, it makes me think of our ad campaign “Untouched.” FIJI Water is untouched by man; I”ve been to Fiji and seen the factory. No one is yelling, “Don”t touch!” No one has to…FIJI Water”s state-of-the-art bottling facility is designed to protect the purity and quality of the water. It sits on top of an aquifer (which is like a huge, slow-moving, underground river), and the water is drawn into the factory straight into the bottle without human contact!

Now if I could only get my little ones to leave Mommie’s shoes and jewelry box “Untouched!”

Admittedly I am a Mommy who talks about her kids WAY TOO MUCH! And this blog just gives me another outletÖ

Fact: I love my kids. But having responsibility for them is already scary enough, and what I feed them is at the top of my anxiety list!

It started before they were born. I would travel as far as necessary to shop for groceries, paying double for a prenatal vitamin, organic waffles (they”re all I could keep down the first 4 months), other organics, pesticide/hormone/flavor-free everything…just so I knew my growing babies were getting the best nutrition available. Now add to that the fluid intake I needed. I”ve never been one for soda or highly caloric juices, so I relied on water. With most foods, I got heartburn. I tried all the water I could, whether based on a cute bottle, flavor, or price, but even water gave me heartburn! Then I tried FIJI Water and loved the taste. And I could drink more without getting heartburn. Other mommies-to-be told me it was the purest water I could drink and provided natural minerals both the babies and I could benefit from.

Fast forward a few years later, I”m now an employee at FIJI Water. A week into my job, they sent me to the island of Fiji to see where the water comes from. I have seen where the water comes from and gets put into the iconic square bottle. I am proud to work for a product that is as natural and untouched as the product claims. And I am proud to serve the best in my home – especially to my kids!

BTW: Since working here, I”ve learned about BPA, and the product has never had it!

I also appreciate the concern of those who felt skipping dinner would be unhealthy. Believe me, I am the last person in the world to advocate not eating as a way to lose weight. Apart from the obvious health implications, I just love to eat. So even if it were a good idea, I couldn’t ever pull it off!

That said, I do believe there are many food and beverage choices we can make that are healthier for us and for the environment. For example, over the past few years, more people have chosen to drink bottled water. While some environmentalists have expressed concern that these people are replacing tap water with bottled water, beverage sales data show this simply isn’t true. People are replacing sugary packaged beverages – not tap – with bottled water, a much healthier and less carbon-intensive option.

Over the past few years, the increase in bottled water volume has closely mirrored the decline in carbonated soft drinks and sugary fruit drinks. In other words, people are substituting bottled water for other packaged beverages that are less healthy and have a higher environmental impact. Soft drinks and fruit drinks use lots of refrigeration energy, result in agricultural impacts (e.g., energy, pesticides, fertilizers) from growing sugar, corn, and other ingredients, and require manufacturing of flavors, preservatives, and other chemicals. (You’ll recall from the Wall Street Journal article that refrigeration is a major carbon emissions source for beverages that require chilling.) Soft drinks also require extra packaging to hold in the bubbles.

So as people choose bottled water instead of soda or fruit drinks, they not only contribute to the overall greening of the beverage industry, but also do so in a way that is healthier. In fact, the switch to bottled water has eliminated about a trillion calories from the American diet over each of the past couple of years.

Trillions of calories – now that’s a lot of weight. Personally, I think FIJI Water tastes much better than the sugary stuff, so I’ll happily choose that when I’m on the go. And if it helps me cut out a couple hundred empty calories, doesn’t need chilling because it tastes good at room temperature, and avoids the conversion of land to agricultural use and the manufacture of preservatives (who needs those?), so much the better!

Let’s start with recycling at the bottling facility. Paul, our Director of Production Operations & Engineering, has been hard at work over the past year and a half figuring out how to recycle manufacturing waste materials. Thanks to his efforts and those of our recycling partners in Australia, we’ve reduced by 70% the amount of manufacturing waste taken to landfills. Paul’s ultimate goal is for the FIJI Water plant to become a “zero waste” facility, meaning we will reduce, reuse, or recycle all waste.

At first Paul started with plastic and cardboard, for which there are many eager buyers already. Not content with that, however, Paul and the team persisted and found buyers for lab coats, shoe covers, hair nets, pallet strapping, bulk bags and drums, empty spools, and more. (Who knew you could recycle this kind of stuff too?)

When looking for buyers to take the recyclables, Paul simply asks that they pay enough to cover the cost of transportation. With popular materials like PET, however, he can usually get more. So he’s taken the money earned and reinvested it into the recycling infrastructure at the plant. This helps us recycle more materials and do so more efficiently. The bottling facility is now capable of recycling not only its own waste, but also recyclable materials brought in by local residents from their villages and towns. This is important because there is no other recycling infrastructure available to the local community.

In case you are wondering whether the greenhouse gas emissions from transporting recyclable materials to buyers are worth the effort to recycle, here are the numbers from our base year.

• Emissions created by transporting recyclables: 13 tonnes CO2eq
• Emissions avoided by recycling materials instead of producing new ones: 619 tonnes CO2eq

The net impact is an emissions reduction of 606 tonnes CO2eq, having the same effect as taking 111 passenger vehicles off the road for a year or planting over 15,000 trees.

This works on an individual level too. Every time you recycle the packaging for anything you use – food and beverage, for example – you reduce its carbon footprint. Play our recycling game to learn how this works!