Pros And Cons Of Drinking Tap Water

When it comes to drinking water, most people immediately desire a crystal clear, ice cold bottle of water. What they might not know is that bottled water is dangerous; not only is it stored in a carcinogen-releasing container, but it has over 38 other chemicals and pollutants in it. Tap water, on the other hand, is straight from a source that is thoroughly regulated. Consumers should ban the bottle when it comes to drinking water and instead drink tap water. For one, drinking tap water decreases the astronomical amount of waste caused by bottled water. Not only that, but by American consumers purchasing bottled water, they are paying companies to waste money and valuable natural resources, while tap water and it's increased use is creating

tap debate has been on American consumers. Consider the inhabitants of other countries; people who would give anything to have the luxury of drinking water, much less the leisure to argue about which type they prefer. In his article, Tom Standage states that “More than 2.6 billion people...lack basic sanitation, and more than one billion...lack reliable access to safe water” (Standage 25). That’s 2.6 billion people who are living without sanitation for water. That’s over 1 billion who don’t have water that’s safe to drink. These people will die young from water borne diseases and dehydration. Americans have advanced sanitation and a reliable source of clean water, but instead of helping others less fortunate, the U.S spends billions of dollars and gallons of oil creating bottled water with little purpose other than to look better than tap. While we are spending time deciding what brand of water we like best, our fellow humans must walk 8 hours in the desert to a mud pit, dig a hole in the clay, and retrieve what can hardly be called water from it. Even after this 8 hour walk and hour of collecting water, there is so little that boiling it for sanitation eradicates the entire water supply. Were the money from water bottle production saved, it could provide others with a safe source of water. Tap water can not only save money, but it can save

For instance, bottled water companies create jobs, including transportation, manufacture, and marketing. However, tap water also creates jobs, without the waste of natural resources and plastic. It has been sale that the sale if water aids the economy and promotes the marketing of other products, further improving the economy. However, selling what is free is not the way to help the economy. Does a business flourish when only the people working there buy the products? In this way, neither can a country flourish through the sale of bottled water within itself. For a truly better economy, the U.S must reach out to other countries. By abandoning bottled water and drinking tap, we will save more than enough money to help other, less-fortunate countries. To give back to the world would change other countries’ opinions of America for the better, improving world trade. In bottled water’s defense, majority of consumers claim that bottled water tastes infinitely better that tap. However, in a blind taste test conducted by Tom Standage, only 1 person was able to correctly identify which of the various samples of water was tap. This apparent bad taste is likely due to perceptual set, or predisposition. Since consumers think they ‘know’ tap water tastes bad, it tastes bad. Therefore, once the knowledge of which cup holds the tap water is taken away, so is that predisposition, and the taster