Why do people buy bottled water rather than drink tap (need the percentage breakdown)?

Question

ie. perceived better taste, convenience, health, etc.

FoodNet 1998-1999 Survey on water:
Reasons for drinking bottled water included improved taste or odor (49.1%), avoiding chemicals (28.0%), and avoiding germs (16.5%).

There's this: http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/chap2.asp#figure2

but it's from way back in 1993.

are there other surveys available?

Answer 1

I drink tap water. I am not going to shell out over a dollar every time I am thirsty. The best tap water I ever had is from Iceland. it is naturally filtered. You go into a kind of shock when you swallow the first glug. It is amazing stuff. I have been to 33 foreign countries and 48 states and drank tap water in all of them. The only time i added water pills was in the boy scouts in France and in Korea.. water companies for sure re putting bad vibes out there ,so that people will buy the bottled stuff. I think I have seen about a 60% of people buying bottled water.

Answer 2

In San Francisco Bay Area, the tap water we get from Hetch Hetchy goes through a treatment process and is actually better than bottled water. If you have bad house pipes or the old kind of soldering, before getting some drinking water you should run your cold water a little to flush out the water that was sitting in the pipes. Never drink water from the hot water tap.

The water department sells city Hetch Hetchy water in drinking sized bottles but I think you need to go to their SF office on Market St. to buy it.

But I carry bottled water in the car for convenience. Sometimes I will sanitize my empty bottle by washing it with a little bleach and refill it with city water. Someone told me I shouldn't reuse the bottles but I wasn't told why I shouldn't.

Answer 3

I drink tap water. genuinely, I make iced tea and use the water from the tap, or drink Crystal mild. The water is completely secure. genuinely the bacteria count number is decrease in tap water than bottled water because the counts are taken on a daily basis. i replaced into paying for Deer Park water for awhile and had the dispenser, it had extra bacteria than interior reach water so it replaced right into a waste of money for me.

Answer 4

no, it really is much better for you than tap water. And I'm not saying that because I want the water companies to make a lot of money. Tap water is full of impurities. I think it's because our pipes are getting older and the water going through them picks up a lot more garbage. Have yours tested sometime and see how much radium and other poisons are in it.

Answer 5

I buy bottled water to bring to work with me. One, anything liquid we have has to be in a closable container. Second we are a manufacturing plant with a lot of chemicals in it so no employee is allowed to drink the tap water.. that is just used for the sanitation system. The company buys bottled water for employees.

Answer 6

i watched on 'acurrentafair' that people are paying a lot of money for fresh spring mt water,
and the scientists proved that it was no different than drinking tap water...
so i use tap water anyway.. its all the same in my eyes mate

Answer 7

From what I'm told, tap water is better for kids because of the chlorine in it.

Answer 8

my tap water taste like crap to me. dasani has minerals though lacks flouride, plus you can get water with flavor, like citrus, or wildberry. it taste better to me. no its not just in my head either.

Answer 9

Paranoia brought on by the media.