U.S. Households' Perception of Drinking Water as Unsafe and its Consequences: Examining Alternative Choices to the Tap

Abstract

Using 2015 American Housing Survey data, this study generates the first national estimates of the use of drinking water alternatives among households who perceive their tap water to be unsafe. Multivariate regression models examine factors influencing both perception of tap water and the choice of tap alternatives. We find that minority households more commonly perceive their tap water to be unsafe and choose bottled water when they perceive the tap as unsafe. While perception of unsafe tap water is most prevalent among Hispanic households, among the population perceiving their tap to be unsafe, Black households more commonly buy bottled water. We estimate the minimum annual expenditure by all U.S. households who perceive the tap as unsafe and buy bottled water to meet necessary consumption standards at $5.65 billion annually. Novel secondary treatment interventions and education campaigns are needed to address the perception of tap water as unsafe and consequent alternative source reliance, while additional research is needed to document the active trade‐offs households make to manage their water sources, and to better understand determinants of the perception of tap water as unsafe within minority groups.

Measuring Human Water Needs

“…Water insecurity also has indirect effects on growth and development. Examples of such pathways include exposure to infectious diarrheas or other diseases either through consumption of unsafe water or insufficient sanitation, limits on child feeding options that require preparation with water, and switching to sugar‐sweetened beverages when water is unsafe (Bartram & Cairncross, ; Javidi & Pierce, ).…”

Analysis of Water Utility Websites Reveals Missed Opportunities

“…Water utilities today must compete with bottled water and sugary beverages that are marketed to the public by playing off distrust of public water supplies. In the United States, a significant proportion of households perceive their tap water as unsafe (Javidi & Pierce ). In reality, tap water is held to higher standards and is considerably less expensive than bottled alternatives; however, many consumers don't seem to get these messages.…”

“…The lack of gender and racial diversity at the utility leadership level has implications beyond poor representation. Even as water contamination incidents in Flint, Mich., and Newark, N.J., have resulted in increased consumer mistrust of tap water, such perceptions are especially prevalent among Hispanic and black Americans (Javidi & Pierce ).…”

Life and death: Toward a human biology of water

“…Within advanced economies, household water insecurity is a mostly hidden and rapidly growing challenge, intersecting with low income and/or minority status in ways that can significantly worsen health and well‐being (Doyle, Kindness, Realbird, Eggers, & Camper, ; Kruger et al, ). For example, adults living in mobile home units often have less reliable access to water services (Pierce & Gonzalez, ), which can shift consumption of tap to bottled water (Rosinger, Herrick, Wutich, Yoder, & Ogden, ), lead to restriction of plain intake, or consumption of worse, sugary beverages (Javidi & Pierce, ; Rosinger, Bethancourt, & Francis, ).…”