>>>I think you missed the point I was making.
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>>No, I don't think I did. I just didn't comment on it. I wanted to jump on the idea of people buying tap water and thinking it's better just because it's in a bottle.
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>It's everywhere. Amazing, what lots of PR can do. Manhattan has very tasty tap water, I loved it, but for all my time in NY I didn't see anyone drink it.
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>Worse - here, in my city, the water is technically not quite right, there are some mineral residues, iron etc, so it's a bit yellow. And it contains traces of arsenic, to which you actually acquire resistance over time (there was a case of an unsuccessful poisoning - the victim was resistant). The whole city drank that tap water for 40 years, since the time these wells were drilled. After Milošević was gone, the new local gov't even renewed street pumps (same water, just drilled on the spot) which were neglected over the years.
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>Then the water seller lobby made its move, and all of a sudden the arsenic was a problem, and the city tap water was declared unpotable, even though it was the same as it always was. And now, only six years after that, you can see people hauling six liter bottles on their bikes or on foot - the same people who make maybe 150€ a month (350€ is the average salary, but many are unemployed, and small businesses change staff every few months, enjoying some legal loophole).

The worst of it is that, here in Ontario at least, the bottlers get the water for free by taking from the lakes and rivers and then selling it for profit. That is, when they aren't using tap water. It appears that most of what is sold as pure spring water, isn't.

What really kills me is that in blind taste tests everywhere, local tap water almost always finishes, if not first, at least in the top 2 or three. And then the same people who selected the tap water leave the test and go back to drinking the bottled water they didn't care much for in the tests. It's just creepy.