What are the pros and cons of tap water? Tap water comes from rivers, wells, reservoirs. The water comes from a water treatment plant that directs itself to homes and businesses. Many people think that tap water isn’t safe to drink but according to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control for Prevention, the U.S has one of the safest water supplies for tap water.
What are the pros and cons of tap water? iStock-photo credit: Liudmilla Chernetska
Our tap water in the United States is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA). Their job is to identify the legal limits of potential containments in drinking water under the safe drinking water act.
When blind taste tests studies have been conducted most people couldn’t tell the difference between drinking tap water over bottled water surprisingly.
Tap water is economically cheaper but bottled water is more convenient if you are always travelling from a transportation perspective. This is the honest economics of tap water vs bottled water. One gallon of tap water costs 5 cents in the U.S but a gallon of bottled water is about $9.47.
When you do the math, it is more than 2,000 times more expensive than tap water. And it is more expensive than gasoline and milk too when it comes to bottled water. We want to believe that bottled water is healthier than tap water, but studies have shown that the difference between the two from a health perspective is minimal.
The negative of bottled water is the microplastics that some can contain and if it is a high amount, it typically is recalled. Microplastics is when you have small pieces of plastics in the water.
There was a 2018 research study that was done in 9 different countries, and it revealed that 93% of the 259 bottles sampled contained microplastics. The contamination of this was because of the packaging and bottling issues.
The Bottom Line is tap water is healthy to drink based on what the CDC states because the U.S has one of the safest water supplies. And it is important to know that in the United States tap water is regulated by the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency.
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References
1) Food & Water Watch- https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2016/02/16/guide-to-safe-tap-water-and-water-filters/
2) Etale A, Jobin M, Siegrist M. Tap versus bottled water consumption: The influence of social norms, affect and image on consumer choice. Appetite. 2018 Feb 1;121:138-146. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2017.11.090. Epub 2017 Nov 14. PMID: 29146458.
3) Debbeler LJ, Gamp M, Blumenschein M, Keim D, Renner B. Polarized but illusory beliefs about tap and bottled water: A product- and consumer-oriented survey and blind tasting experiment. Sci Total Environ. 2018 Dec 1;643:1400-1410. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.190. Epub 2018 Jul 4. PMID: 30189556.
4) Gregory Pierce, Joseph Gardiner, Grace Harrison, Amber L. Pearson, Understanding consumption and purchase of tap water and diverse tap-alternative drinking water sources in Detroit, Michigan, Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 10.2166/washdev.2024.100, 14, 11, (1113-1124), (2024).
5) Mason SA, Welch VG, Neratko J. Synthetic Polymer Contamination in Bottled Water. Front Chem. 2018 Sep 11;6:407. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2018.00407. PMID: 30255015; PMCID: PMC6141690.
6) FDA- https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/fda-regulates-safety-bottled-water-beverages-including-flavored-water-and-nutrient-added-water
7) Debbeler LJ, Gamp M, Blumenschein M, Keim D, Renner B. Polarized but illusory beliefs about tap and bottled water: A product- and consumer-oriented survey and blind tasting experiment. Sci Total Environ. 2018 Dec 1;643:1400-1410. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.190. Epub 2018 Jul 4. PMID: 30189556.
8) EPA- https://www.epa.gov/sdwa
9) IBWA- https://bottledwater.org/nr/tap-water-life-cycle-assessment-misses-the-point-of-bottled-water/
