RE:...for little or no benefit...
I completely agree. In addition, there are much tighter standards for tap water than bottled water (for which regulation is very young yet). As for RO units, the wash and waste also has a very negative effect on your waste treatment plant as it concentrates minerals and wastes that a waste treatment plant is NOT designed to remove and ends up dumping more contamination into the waterway the plant discharges to. There's no free lunch as they say. Hysteria in the news media is the main marketer of most devices in my opinion. Simply look at the required annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) for your water system.
(7 years public health chemist/microbiologist, 33 years municipal water treatment and QC laboratory).
