What’s in Your Bottled Water?
Tracy Fernandez Rysavy
Co-op America’s Real Money newsletter
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Is your bottled water really safer for your health than tap water?
Every minute of every day, Americans spend around $18,600 on bottled water. Most of these consumers buy their water by the bottle because they feel it’s more pure than what comes out of their faucets. At an average of 500 to 1,000 times the price of tap water, one wonders if it’s worth it.
Not only is bottled water harder on your bank account, but there are environmental costs, too. Making plastic, glass, or aluminum bottles requires resources and can release toxins into the atmosphere. Considerable amounts of fuel and energy are needed transport bottles around the world. And indiscriminate extraction techniques deplete community aquifers.
And here’s the kicker — bottled water isn’t necessarily safer than tap water.
The Purity Question
Many bottled water consumers are unwittingly paying for a product that differs little from what comes out of their faucets. In fact, government regulations for bottled water leave loopholes that could make the water you buy by the bottle even less safe than your tap water at home.
Bottled water conforms to standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while tap water has to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. FDA’s rules for bottled water are weaker in many ways than EPA regulations for big city tap water. For example, bottled water is required to be tested less frequently for bacteria and chemical contaminants. And, unlike EPA rules for tap water, bottled water regulations don’t ban phthalates — a carcinogen and endocrine disruptor — or fecal coliforms.
In addition, bottled water regulatory programs at the state and federal level are grossly under-staffed: Forty-three states and the FDA each have fewer than one staff person dedicated to bottled water regulation. By comparison, hundreds of federal staff and many more state personnel are dedicated to municipal water regulation.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested 103 brands of bottled water in 1999 and found that one-third had levels of chemical or bacterial contaminants that exceeded state or industry standards — something they attributed in part to "the under-funded and haphazard patchwork of regulatory programs." In contrast, incidents of contamination by harmful chemicals or parasites in public drinking water are rare, notes NRDC.
Reading the Labels
Sometimes, however, purchasing bottled water is a necessity. For example, you may have problems with your water source at home or you might be on the road craving a cold beverage. Here’s what the labels tell you about the following FDA-regulated types of water:
Spring water comes from one or more underground formations and must flow naturally to the Earth’s surface. However, the FDA allows bottlers to call their product "spring water" even though the majority of it may be brought to the surface using a pumped well. According to FDA regulations, the source must be stated on the label.
Purified drinking water has been processed by reverse osmosis, deionization, distillation, or other procedures to remove contaminants. The source doesn’t have to be named — and is often tap water. In fact, according to government and industry estimates, as much as 40 percent of bottled water is actually bottled tap water, sometimes with additional treatment, sometimes not.
Naturally sparkling water is naturally carbonated water that often comes from a spring.
Mineral water must contain at least 250 parts per million of dissolved solids — usually calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, silica, and bicarbonates. Mineral water is typically spring water.
Soda water and seltzer are not considered bottled water. The FDA regulates these as soft drinks, under rules less strict than those for bottled water. Some may have added sugars or flavors. They’re often carbonated municipal water, sometimes with extra filtration.
Unfortunately, while water bottlers are required by the FDA to state the water’s source on their labels, several also add misleading graphics or phrases. Notes the NRDC, one brand of "spring water" had a label that pictured a lake and mountains, implying the water came from a pristine mountain source. In fact, the water came from a well in an industrial facility’s parking lot, which was near a hazardous waste dump and periodically became contaminated with industrial chemicals exceeding FDA standards. It met the definition of "spring water" because it did occasionally bubble up to the surface in the parking lot. After public disclosure of the true source of the water, this well is no longer being used.
In another case, water labeled as "Alaska Premium Glacier Drinking Water: Pure Glacier Water from the Last Unpolluted Frontier" was, in fact, from Public Water System #lll241 in Juneau, Alaska. The FDA has since required the bottler to add "from a municipal source" to its labels.
Overall, be wary of words like "pure," "pristine," "glacial," "premium," "natural," or "healthy." They’re basically meaningless words added to labels to emphasize the alleged purity of bottled water over tap water.
For recommendations on alternatives, see What’s in Your Bottled Water?: Your Alternatives.
See also:
How To Provide Safe Drinking Water for Your Family
Leading medical & health experts team up with celebrity parents to help you create a cleaner, greener, safer home and lifestyle.
Creating Healthy Environments for Children: Easy Steps for Homes, Child Care Centers and Schools.