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GUEST: Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch

Jobs in the bottled water industry are few, low-paying, and dangerous. This, according to an analysis of the industry released last week by the consumer advocacy group Food &Water Watch. According to the report, titled, “Unbottled Truth About Bottled Water Jobs,” in 2006, a typical bottled water plant employed only 24 workers. The report also revealed that the average salary for a bottled water worker was $10,000 less than the average manufacturing job, and that bottled water manufacturing had one of the highest rates of workplace injury and illness. The report will likely spur recent opposition to the bottled water industry. Environmentalists are calling for the revival of tap water, since the chemical makeup of plastic water bottles as well as transport costs, damage the environment. Some corporations have responded to the criticism by QUOTE “going green.” Meanwhile, across the country, city councils in small towns like McCloud, California, and Enumclaw, Washington, have been opposing Nestle Corp.’s proposals to build water bottling plants in their communities. Local residents fear that multinational corporations are privatizing a natural resource that is vital to survival.

For more information, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.