The War on Tap Water?

I've noticed at New Trier that many students opt to buy bottled water from the cafeteria (me included) for $1-$4, rather than getting it from home for less than a cent. This got me wondering, why?

I found an interesting NPR article that showed that, "In the late 1970s, around 350 million gallons of bottled water were sold in the United States...In 2008, nearly 9 billion gallons (over 34 billion liters) of bottled water were packaged and sold in the United States and five times this amount was sold around the world..."(NPR). This is a huge number, and one that clearly shows that sales of bottled water are growing exponentially. Although this is a crazy statistic, it leaves us wondering why...

It is reported that most Americans drink bottled water over tap water is because it seems to be cleaner. Wouldn't you rather drink water from the "Swiss Alps" or from "Lake Michigan" the later where people go and swim in, and where there's fish and all sorts of nasty things; the former gives the connotation of pure water from melted snow. In reality, this isn't true, "It is estimated that about 25 percent of the bottled waters consumed in the U.S. come from municipal water supplies"(Today.com). Surprising? It should be, in some cases bottled water is considered worse for your health than tap water. Did you know that Dasani is banned in the EU because it contains traces of cancer causing agents?

So, why do you buy bottled water?