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Pure H20/Hype? An exploration into the facts and misconceptions about bottled water. Recently I was visiting a friend, her house, late in the evening, and neither of us had eaten dinner. Both hungry, we'd reflect on that fact by saying to one another "Geez, I'm hungry. How about you?" followed by "You got any cash?" This went on for about an hour at which point it had been firmly established that we both were broke and hungry. Finally I asked if she would let me have a look around her fridge for some leftovers. I was almost certain I would find some frozen food buried behind the ice cubes. "Go ahead," she said and off I went. When I opened the refrigerator door I was confronted with the slightly unnerving site of shelves jam packed with bottled water. There were 12 oz. bottles for your car, 24 oz. bottles for your bag, 32 oz. bottles for your cubicle, I was astounded, some bottles had sport caps, some were twist off, some had straws. The variety of packaging, and graphics was almost oppressive when seen in such quantity. What was going on here? She probably had $150 dollars worth of bottled water, along with a lonely stick of butter. It all seemed very wrong and I began to question what was behind this cult of bottled water. Is bottled water so much better than tap that it justifies spending 100,000 percent more money per volume, than what is readily available from the faucet? And ultimately, is drinking bottled water on the assumption of purity and healthiness misguided?