Drinking Water and Risk of Stroke

“There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” — William Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act 1, Scene 5 English dramatist and poet (1564 to 1616) See related article, pages 2499–2504. Less than 1% of the fresh water (approximately 0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human use. We use this small amount of water for drinking, transportation, heating and cooling, industry, and many other purposes.1 In countries with limited access to safe drinking water (and also in developed countries with an increasing consumption of bottled mineral water), its cost has been rising. Furthermore, the price per liter of bottled water may be surprisingly higher than the price of a liter of gasoline! For example, the average cost of regular gasoline (87 octanes) is US $0.8 to 1.1 in the United States and Canada, and 1.7 to 1.9 Euros in European countries (Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom according to the European Commission, Oil Bulletin, Weekly Report, April 2010). By contrast, the average price of a liter of bottled water (2×500 mL) in convenience stores in North America (United States, Canada) range from US $2 to 3 …