Journal Entry March 3, 2022

On Tuesday night I was drinking filtered water as usual and my stomach began hurting. It felt like I may have an ulcer or something. I switched to bottled water and the pain went away.

Wednesday, I was working at the computer and saw that my air purifier was changing from blue to green. I eventually remembered that I left the humidifier on in my room. I turned it off and the purifier didn’t change again. I will be getting distilled water for the humidifier and drink bottled water only going forward.

At the time of this journal entry, I was using Pur Plus filters that were “WQA certified to filter lead.” I kept a bottle of Essentia in the refrigerator for those times when I needed electrolytes. I began buying gallons of drinking and distilled water as I promised myself. To test the filtered water I had in the refrigerator, I poured some into the humidifier reserve and switched the humidifier on. The air purifier light changed to green.

Fast forward to the third week of June, after hauling the usual 3 gallons of water I bought from the grocers, I felt back pain. I knew I could not continue transporting gallons in my cart and began looking for another solution. On July 1, I purchased a ZeroWater Pitcher from Walmart.

Now we come to the highlight of this post. A device for testing water comes with the pitcher. The device measures total dissolved solids. Below are photographs of the device in glasses with water from different sources. I did not alter the photographs in any way.

The purpose of this post is not to promote ZeroWater, it is to contest Chicago’s $.05 tax on bottled water, even when it is purchased over the internet. I don’t think we should be charged a tax for trying to protect our health. What do you think?

“On April 24, 2020, the Chicago City Council passed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed ordinance extending the city’s taxes on bottled water and alcoholic beverages to include online and other remote sales to Chicagoans. Under the recently passed ordinance, bottled water and liquor sellers located outside of Chicago are now required to collect city tax on bottled water and liquor sales shipped into the city beginning July 1, 2020.” – Chicago amends bottled water and liquor taxes to capture remote sales.