There once was a time when people of all ages drank their water from the tap, probably because there were no other options. Bottled water did not exist, and these people would probably have had a good laugh at the very thought of paying for their drinking water The city water was good enough for them, so they thought.
Little did they know what was in the water Had they known of the chemicals, toxic minerals, and also the micro-organisms that this water contained, I'm not sure what would have happened. There was no other alternative to tap water so they really didn't have much choice if they wanted to enjoy a cold glass of sparkling water.
Back in the 1950s, our water suppliers were not required by law to let the public know what sort of contaminants had been found in the water as they are today. If you check online, you can find statistics for every large, medium, and small city that tell just what the last check of their city water revealed. Well, almost every city. It seems that some of them refused to send this information in to the Environmental Protection Agency. What does that tell us? That they knew the water was full of bad things, and they are trying to hide it? Or, that the state and city officials in several of our 50 states are so busy and/or scatterbrained that they cannot take the time to send in the results of a water sample?
You be the judge!
Today, it isn't so hard to get information like this. In fact, it is sent right to your home via the U.S. Postal Service so no one can say they were not kept informed about the state of the tap water where they live. And as a result, the sales of bottled water are booming! In 2007, America spent more than 15 billion dollars on bottled water People in this country now drink bottled water before they will drink milk, coffee, or beer.
Back in 1976, the average person consumed around one and a half gallons of bottled water per year. Not much at all when it is spread out over an entire year! Compare that to the numbers for last year, when the average citizen in America drank more than 28 gallons of bottled water in a year. Note that's an average American, which means there are people out there who drank even more than 28 gallons! In a little over thirty years, our usage of bottled water has increased significantly.
Bottled water is now the fastest growing "commercial beverage" that has ever been sold in America. People have caught on to the fact that the old adage about drinking eight glasses of water a day - which has been changed, by the way, to "Drink eight glasses of GOOD water a day for optimum health." It won't be long until we are able to see the effects of all this water drinking. Already, individuals have reported fairly painless weight loss when they started drinking at least six 20 ounce bottles of water.
You could take a poll of people anywhere you found a group of them together in one spot, and probably 98% of them would tell you why they preferred bottled water over tap water You'd probably get some colorful comments about the taste of tap water from "It tastes like a sewer smells" to "It tastes like it come out of a toilet". People would tell you how convenient the bottled water was for their lifestyle, noting how they are able to take it to work, to school, to the park, on camping trips... virtually anywhere they go. They'd mention how they preferred for their children to drink bottled water instead of tap water for health reasons, and how surprised and glad they were when their child actually asked for a bottle of water while on an outing instead of a soda.
If you were taking this poll, you would also have to speak to that other 2% of people who do not care for bottled water for one reason or another. They are naysayers, some of them. They can get so worked up about bottled water that they froth at the mouth.
Their major problem with bottled water is twofold - What are all those plastic bottles going to do to the environment, and why would anyone actually pay for something that they can get for free? Apparently, they are unaware that the plastic that water bottles are made of is a type of plastic that breaks down and decomposes very quickly - that's why we are told not to reuse an empty plastic water bottle. And... yes, the water that we can get at our kitchen faucet is free... but at what cost? I can think of a lot of unsavoury things one can get for free that can make you quite ill, so why would I want to drink bacteria and microbe laden water just because it didn't cost anything? Actually, it does cost something. Mere pennies, though, unless your water is included in your rent.
Money can't buy health. The money that people would save by not purchasing bottled water just might go to buy soda, which is notoriously unhealthy. I for one am simply glad that the majority of the population has discovered nature's drink in a form where it is actually good tasting - bottled water.