DEAR DR. GOTT:
I know you’ve addressed the problem before, but what’s your current view on drinking bottled water and how much of it should we drink?

DEAR READER:
Unfortunately for the bottled water industry, my views have not changed one bit. Quite the contrary.

Tap water is one of the items that have not risen in price the way everything else appears to have. It’s there for us at the turn of a faucet. According to reports, Americans spent $11 billion on bottled water in 2006. The reason can be summed up in one word: marketing. Done properly, we can be convinced, sometimes quite easily, to purchase nearly anything and that includes water that can be had seemingly freely by going to the kitchen sink.

It’s getting to the point that one can’t walk down a street or stand in a crowd without seeing numerous people drinking bottled water in public. You’d recognize them. [Read more...]