The Rise of Bottled Water

The environmental movement changed the way Americans looked at their water supply. For one thing, they were concerned about fluoridation (beginning in the 1940s, fluoride was added to some municipal water systems to prevent dental cavities in children), and this worried many Americans. Pollution, a far bigger problem, came to public attention through the writings of environmentalists. Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, published in 1962, raised the alarm about the impact of pesticides on the environment. Industrial waste and untreated sewage had long been dumped into the nation’s rivers and lakes, which supplied towns and cities with their drinking water. During the late 1960s and early 1970s a committed environmental movement emerged, leading to passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, and other laws that outlawed dumping sewage and industrial contaminants into the water system. Despite the improvements that resulted from this legislation, many Americans began to reach for bottled water as a safer, more healthful alternative to their local tap water.