Dihydrogen Monoxide -- the Safest Chemical

(WSJ graphic)

In further confirmation that in perception, if not in actual fact, sugar is the new tobacco (see yesterday's post),

"Americans now officially drink more bottled water than soda".

Bottled-water consumption in the U.S. reached 39.3 gallons per capita last year, while carbonated soft drinks slipped to 38.5 gallons, according to industry tracker Beverage Marketing Corp.

The eight U.S. cities that impose a soda tax (four---Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco---are in the Bay Area) encompass less than 10% of the population, so it's doubtful that sin taxes played a major role in shifting consumption toward bottled water.

Rather, consumers are doing it on their own "amid concerns about the health effects of sugary drinks and the safety of public-water supplies."

I've reduced soda consumption to 2-3 bottles a month---the real stuff, because diet-soda chemicals are more harmful than sugar---and drink water more often from the tap than from bottles. Local water quality should be excellent after recent repairs to the system, and the incremental cost of a cuppa H2O is a fraction of a cent.

Foster City obtains its water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir through the SF PUC.