Question

Bottled vs. Tap: Discuss the quality of your water supply, or your perception of the quality of your tap water at home. Do you think it is safe? Why or why not? Do you drink tap water or bottled water, or perhaps you filter your own water? Why? Does it have to do with the perceived quality or safety, or is it more about the taste? Do you think there is any relationship between taste and safety?

15 points. Incorporate some chemistry in support of your opinions for full credit.

Answer 1

Drinking water is water that is clean and safe for humans to drink. In recent time, there is an increasing trend in consumer preference of bottled water over tap water/town supply water. One of the reasons is due to the convenience of being able to carrying bottled water around. Bottled water is now the second largest commercial beverage category in the U.S.A after carbonated soft drinks. People commonly believe that bottled water is "healthier" than tap water and taste better, purer, clearer, and safer than tap water. However consumers pay many times (could be thousands time the price of tap) more than the cost of tap water to drink bottled water (costs associated with plastic bottle, lid, label, transportation etc.).

Bottled water appears to be not subject to rigorous testing and purity standards that is applied to city tap water. Water quality regulations require frequent