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Economic Damages to Households.., 33 l\) o i":" W on consumer costs related to water quality found a relationship between bottled water purchases and water quality, either hardness or TDS. In fact, in studies that went a step further, the pur- chase of bottled water was shown to increase proportionally to the use of home water soft- eners, which also increases with increasing TDS in the water supply. There has been very little publicly available research into why a consumer purchases bottled water, but there is evidence that the taste of softened water may playa role in this relationship. The International Bottled Water Association provides market research for its members, but the smallest available disaggregation is to a state level (all of California, for example), and most of its information is on a regional (multi-state) basis. California is the biggest market for all types of bottled water in this country. There has been speculatioD that the life style, awareness of trends, overall wealth or the consumer, etc., plays a role in this, Purchase of bottled water can be classified as a voluntary cost except in those rare instances where a no sodium diet is prescribed or when temporary pollution of a water source occurs. Only one survey exists that specifically asked consumers in California why they purchase bottled water, That survey, cODducted by TIle Los Angeles Times in September 1986, asked registered California voters four questions about drinking water. The survey results were disag- gregated to Los Angeles County, Orange COUD- ty, and the rest of Southern California without Kern County. The four questioDs, asked at the end of a long questionnaire, were: a, Is your usual source of drinking water at home tap water or bottled water? (If tap) Do you have a water ftltration device, or not? b, What is the main reason you don't use bot- tled water or a filtration device at home: is it be- cause you think your tap water is safe, or is it because bottled water or a ftltration dcvice costs too much, or is it bccause you are satisfied with the tastc of tap water, or what? c, What is the main rcason you use ftltered! bottled water at home: is it because it tastes better than tap water, or is it because it's safer than tap water? d. Just how safe is the water you drink at home? ID your opinion, is it perfectly pure at all times, or healthy enough and safe to drink, or do you think it may sometimes be unsafe to drink or toxic? Over half the respondents in Los Angeles County drink unflltered tap water, but 48 per- cent use a mter or bottled water. The same is true for Orange County. Slightly fewer (44 per- cent) respoDdeDts in the rest of Southern Califor- nia use a ftlter or buy bottled water. A plurality of those who drink tap water (about 35 percent) do so because they are satisfied with its taste, about 25 percent because they cODsider it safe, aDd 25 percent because of its lower cost, and the rest have "other" reasons. More than 60 percent of the respoDdents felt that the tap water was safe or pure, although ODe quarter felt that it was unsafe, and the remainder were not sure. Of particular interest to this study, the reasons for drinking bottled water or using a home mter system were fairly well divided among the three responses in Orange County and the rest of Southern California. Only in Los Angeles County was better taste a stronger motivation than concern for the safety of water. The results for question c for the three divisions are shown in table 6. Distorted claims that public water supplies are unsafe have been made by some sellers of water softening and purification devices and some bottled water purveyors. To counter these unethical tactics, California in 1986 passed two laws, One requires the State Department of Table 6. - Reasons for drinking bottled water or for using a home filter system in parts of California Rest of LA Ora nee Sll....CA Taste 35% 37% 45% Taste & safety 27% 27% 34% Safety 38% 34% 20%