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Is Bottled Water Better? Report Says Tap Water Often As Good

By Mark Baumgartner
ABC NEWS

May 3 — Bottled water is the world's fastest growing beverage, but consumers would be better served by simply turning on the tap, asserts an environmental group.

Bottlers of water generally capitalize on consumer concerns about municipal water supplies, creating demand for their product via an association with pristine environs. Some bottled waters, however, differ from tap water merely by being distributed in bottles rather than through pipes, according to a report commissioned by Switzerland-based World Wildlife Fund International.
"Bottled water may be no safer or healthier than tap water, while selling for up to 1,000 times the price," the report said. 

The reason, according to the environmental group, is an absence of standards regulating bottled water. "In fact," said the report, "there are more standards regulating tap water in Europe and the United States than those applied to the bottled water industry." 

From Source to Finished Product

Not surprisingly, the bottled water industry disagrees with the assertion that bottled water is regulated less rigorously than tap water.

"At least in the United States, bottled water is regulated as a packaged food product by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration," said Stephen Kay of the International Bottled Water Association. "It meets specific standards of quality and safety from the source all the way though the finished product."

Bottled water is a necessity in parts of the world without a safe source of potable water, Kay said, and an option for consumers in countries with adequate public water supplies.

In a survey last year, the association found that the average American drinks about a half-dozen eight-ounce servings of a water each day. Bottled water accounts for 2.3 of those servings.

Bottled water users were twice as likely as others to cite health for their choice of beverage, the study found. Fifty-six percent of bottled water users cited taste and 55 percent cited convenience as the strongest influences on their decision to drink bottled water. Slightly more than one in three users of bottled water said their trust in the treatment and the source of the water as reasons that influenced their choice of beverage. 

‘Clean Water Is a Basic Right’

The World Wildlife Fund International report is part of the organization's campaign to improve the quality and safety of tap water. Biksham Gujja of the organization told Reuters the group is considering a public awareness drive in Europe to draw attention to the issue.

The report says the $22-billion-a-year bottled water industry uses 1.5 million tons of plastic annually to package water. The manufacture and disposal of plastic causes toxic chemicals to be released into the environment.

Furthermore, the group worries about release of carbon dioxide, a major threat to the ozone, from the transportation of bottled water. The report said billions of gallons of bottled water are consumed outside of the country of their origin.

"Bottled water isn't a long-term sustainable solution to securing access to healthy water," said the WWF's Richard Holland. "Clean water is a basic right. Protecting our rivers, streams and wetlands will help ensure that tap water remains a service which delivers good quality drinking water for everyone at a fair price." 

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Bottled water not always cleaner than tap water 
By Penny Stern, MD 

NEW YORK, Mar 30 (Reuters Health) -- Some brands of bottled water sold in the US may contain bacteria or chemicals, according to a report released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a New York-based environmental advocacy group. 

Bottled water "should not automatically be assumed to be purer or safer than most tap water," according to the organization. 

The NRDC attached the report to their "Citizen Petition to the US Food and Drug Administration for Improvements in FDA's Bottled Water Program." The report's authors note that "some bottled water comes from sources that are vastly different from what the labels might lead consumers to believe." One brand labeled "spring water" actually came from a well in an industrial facility's parking lot. And according to government and industry estimates, between 25-40% of bottled water sold in the US is taken from public water systems -- "tap water, essentially," the NRDC notes. 

Eric Olson, who works on water safety issues for the NRDC and is principle author of the report, told Reuters Health, "We concluded that although a lot of consumers assumed that bottled water was... cleaner, safer, and better regulated than tap water, that is, in fact, not the case." 

"While most bottled water (we tested) was of fairly high quality, about one third of brands tested violated either strict enforceable state standards or microbial impurity guidelines," Olson explained. 

After testing more than 100 brands of bottled water, the NRDC found that "some bottled water contained bacterial contaminants, and several brands of bottled water contain synthetic organic chemicals... or inorganic contaminants... in at least some bottles." 

In the report, the NRDC described the "serious deficiencies" of regulations designed to protect those who consume bottled water. "FDA's rules... exempt many forms of what most of us would consider 'bottled water' from all of its specific water-testing and contamination standards," the report's authors write. The FDA does not consider products labeled "water," "carbonated water," "seltzer water," "sparkling water," or "soda water," to be "bottled water," nor do most states. 

The NRDC cites an example of the "gaping hole" to be found in the current regulatory scheme. "A big city has to test its tap water 100 times or more a month for coliform bacteria... yet bottled water (even at an enormous bottling plant) must be tested for coliform bacteria only once a week under FDA rules." 

The report goes on to explain that high bacteria counts make municipal tap water supplies liable to violations but that "FDA bowed to bottled water industry arguments and decided to apply no standards for bacteria... commonly found in bottled water." 

Regarding other contaminants, "FDA currently has no enforceable standard or treatment requirement for... Caacrylamide, asbestos, and epichlorohydrin," according to the NRDC, while tap water content of these substances is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Olson said that the NRDC surveyed all 50 states and found that "the vast majority have one person or less working on bottled water concerns." The FDA has one full-time equivalent worker doing the same. When asked how the FDA explained the relative lack of manpower dedicated to the issue, Olson said that FDA officials say they have higher priorities. 

The NRDC acknowledges that the bottled water industry, led by the International Bottled Water Association, "has sometimes been a progressive force in seeking to improve certain FDA controls." But the Association has also "sometimes fought vigorously against tough FDA rules, such as possible controls on Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria... and right-to-know requirements for bottled water," according to the report. 

In a statement, the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) responds "that the NRDC is trying to scare consumers." The group contends that bottled water is "one of the most highly regulated products under FDA regulatory authority." 

"For the past 37 years... there have been no confirmed reports in the US of illness or diseases linked to bottled water," the IBWA points out. Their statement goes on to explain that the Environment Protection Agency, which regulates tap water, "lacks a system to remove products from the market and relies on the less effective consumer notification system." 

According to the IBWA, consumers can obtain "complete testing information" from "virtually all IBWA members" by calling 1-800-WATER-11. The IBWA website (www.bottledwater.org) can also be consulted to ascertain whether a particular brand subscribes to the IBWA "Model Code." Some 85% of bottled water manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers belong to the trade association. 

According to Eric Olson, the NRDC "is not trying to scare consumers. Our bottom line message is that we'd like to see tap water fixed so people don't have to feel they are compelled to turn to bottled water to protect the health of their families." 

Olson told Reuters Health that the NRDC would like to see three major changes made. These are "requiring disclosure on bottled water labels indicating all contaminants, substantially strengthening bottled water standards, and starting a meaningful regulatory system that could be funded by a penny fee charged to bottlers for every bottle they produce." 

http://www.betterhealth.com/ 

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Bottled Water Not So Pure
Environmentalists Warn Some May Be Worse Than Tap 

ABCNEWS' Barry Serafin reports that bottled water may not be as pure as marketers make it out to be. (ABCNEWS)

By H. Josef Hebert
The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, March 30 — It’s advertised as pure and healthy and every year is in greater demand. But bottled water in some cases may not be any purer or bacteria-free than water coming from your tap, an environmental group says. 

In a four-year test of 103 brands of bottled water, the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council found that a third of the tested brands contained bacteria or other chemicals exceeding the industry’s own guidelines or the most stringent state purity standards. 

The study being released today acknowledged that most bottled water “is of good quality” but that industry is left largely to self monitoring because of weak federal and state enforcement. 

The report has already been used in a lawsuit filed today against eight water bottlers in California. 

“Just because water comes from a bottle doesn’t mean it’s any cleaner or safer than what comes from the tap,” Eric Olson, one of authors of the NRDC report, said. 
Stricter Labels Proposed
The report was being released today as Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., planned to introduce legislation that would require stricter labeling requirements on the bottled water industry and that the product meet the same standards for bacterial and chemical contamination as tap water. 

“There may be bottled water that’s cleaner than tap water and some that’s dirtier, but now there’s no way for consumers to tell the difference,” Lautenberg said. 

Americans drink an estimated 3.4 billion gallons of bottled water annually — about 12.7 gallons per person — and the numbers have been increasing nearly 10 percent a year, according to the industry. It’s sold as mineral water, spring water or distilled water, or just plain tap water that has gone through additional filtration. 

The International Bottled Water Association said the NRDC was “trying to scare consumers” with its report. The industry group noted that the report acknowledges that most of the water the NRDC tested was “of good quality” and contained no detectable bacteria or chemicals of concern. 

No Confirmed Health Problems

“For the past 37 years there have been no confirmed reports in the U.S. of illness or disease linked to bottled water,” the association said in a statement. 

But Olson noted that bottled water companies market their products for their purity and health benefits as compared to tap water, while often little is known of the content. “Bottled water is essentially regulated on the honor system in most states,” he said. “Unlike tap water suppliers, bottlers need not disclose to consumers known contaminants in their products.” 
The NRDC tested more than 1,000 samples of 103 types of bottled water purchased in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas and the District of Columbia. 

Study Findings 

One-third of the samples exceeded the California standard or the industry’s own purity guidelines, or both, for a chemical or bacterial contaminant. 

Nearly one in four samples (22 percent) contained levels of cancer-causing synthetic compounds such as arsenic that exceeded the California limit, which is the most stringent. 

Nearly one in five samples (17 percent) contained levels of bacteria higher than the voluntary industry guidelines. There are no federal mandatory standards. 

About one in five samples contained industrial chemicals, and some samples contained arsenic, nitrates or other inorganic contaminants. In both cases the levels generally were below state or federal standards. 

While bottled water is regulated as a food by the Food and Drug Administration, the NRDC study said it is subject to weaker standards when it comes to a wide range of contaminants than ordinary tap water which comes under the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Bottled water, they said, is required to be tested less frequently for bacteria and chemical contaminants; has no requirement to be disinfected or tested for parasites; and it may contain some fecal coliform, 

And enforcement is often lacking, the NRDC study said, with many states dedicating few if any people to bottled water regulation. The study suggested a penny-a-bottle fee on bottled water to pay for tighter regulation, testing and enforcement. 

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Microbes in Bottled Water

Bottled Water Can Harbor Microbes
Wed May 22,10:29 AM ET
By Anne Harding


SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters Health) - Just because water comes in a bottle doesn't mean it's sterile, according to an expert who spoke here Tuesday at the American Society for Microbiology's annual meeting.

"There is a misconception that bottled water is free from microbes. It is not," said Dr. Fred Rosenberg of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. But, he added, "If you are a healthy individual, there's probably little to fear from it."

However, it is not a great idea to share bottled water after it has been opened, or to leave an open bottle sitting around in warm weather for too long, Rosenberg told Reuters Health.

While there haven't been widespread outbreaks of illness linked to consumption of contaminated bottled water, Rosenberg said, bottled water can indeed contain microbes at levels capable of making a person with a weak immune system sick. Bacteria may come from the water source, or can be introduced during the bottling process.

The US does not monitor bottled water for the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause illness, is often resistant to antibiotics and is a reliable indicator that contamination has occurred during bottling, according to Rosenberg.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said such testing would be too expensive, he noted, but both Europe and Canada monitor bottled water for this bug.

The FDA does watch bottled water for contamination with coliform bacteria. But standards for municipal water--which is monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) (EPA)--are actually tougher. While the FDA allows for the presence of tiny amounts of coliform bacteria in 1 out of 10 bottles tested, the EPA has zero tolerance.

Glass bottles, the researcher said, are less hospitable to growth of bacteria than plastic ones. And the organism that causes cholera can survive in flat bottled water, but dies off in carbonated water within a day.

As bottled water is capable of harboring "medically important" microbes, Rosenberg stressed that "frequent analysis and stringent regulation are crucial to maintaining human health."

It should be noted that 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water every year. ``Toxic chemicals can be released into the environment during the manufacture and disposal of bottles.''

Why does bottled water have a "use by" date?

What single step stops most toxic exposure?

Why is distilled water best for consumption?

What is reverse osmosis?

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