Uses of mineral and thermal waters

In the UK the bottled water fad began in earnest in the 1980s, partly as a response to the need for an ‘adult’ non-alcoholic drink, stimulated by stricter drink-driving laws, and partly as a response to public fears over the quality of British tap water. Currently, the market stands at 500 million litres annually in Britain; a market value of some £300 million (Edwards, 1994). It is not so long ago that the Englishman abroad received warnings ‘not to drink the tap water on the Continent’ , and was encouraged to consume only Evian water on holiday.