Bottled water not so pure

   

Bottled water isn't necessarily any purer than the water you get from your tap, it's just more expensive, according to a report released Wednesday by a Washington, D.C., nonprofit research group.

The Environmental Working Group sent samples of 10 major bottled-water brands to the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory. The results: 38 low-level contaminants turned up in the water, with each brand containing an average of eight chemicals. Disinfection products, caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic and bacteria were detected.

Two brands contained disinfection products at levels that exceeded California's bottled-water standards, according to the report. Bottles of Wal-Mart's Sam's Choice bought in the Bay Area contained trihalomethanes, which form when naturally occurring materials in water combine with chlorine. The chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and miscarriages, are also found in tap water.

Indeed, EWG said the lab analyses showed that the Wal-Mart water and a brand sold on the East Coast (but not in California) by the Giant supermarket chain were "chemically indistinguishable from tap water. The only striking difference: the price tag."

The organization is filing a lawsuit in state court alleging that Wal-Mart should have disclosed another contaminant, bromodichloromethane, under California's Proposition 65. In an e-mail Wednesday, a Wal-Mart representative said the company stood behind the quality of its bottled water. "Both our suppliers' tests and the tests from an additional external laboratory are not showing any reportable amounts of chlorine or chlorine by-products."

Olga Naidenko, an EWG senior scientist, said her group was not suggesting that bottled water was more polluted than tap water — but it may not be any better.

In a 1999 report, the Natural Resources Defense Council arrived at a similar conclusion.

In a release, the International Bottled Water Assn. said the EWG report was alarmist and did not involve a representative sample of bottled water.

— Bettina Boxall

Photo: Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett pours a bottle of water over his head at training camp in Newport, R.I., last month. Photo credit: Charles Krupa /Associated Press

Comments

[Charles Warren]

Here's what these bottled-water opponents never tell you: look for the words "spring water" on your bottled water. If it says "spring water" it's 10 times purer than anything that comes out of your tap.

If it doesn't say "spring water", it's probably re-bottled tap water. Buy a different brand. It's really that easy.

[Miki]

For me and most of the word, bottled water is more of a convenience than bought out of fear of tap water. Yes, I have a filter on my tap in the kitchen and yes I use a filtered water container that I keep refilled in my refrigerator. I have a metal "on the go" thermos that I use for trips outside the home but sometimes that is not enough. Now all that said. Let me talk about a difference between USA usage and say .. JAPAN.

Unlike the USA, the majority of people in Japan are walking, biking, commuting via bus and/or train to/from anywhere ... work, jobs, family, shopping, schools, etc. While everyone has a thermos of some kind, its just never enough. And adds to wait you carry around all the day and evening. Most students and workers are not back home till 9pm on the average. Due to such a lifestyle you rarely walk a block without finding VENDING MACHINES of small to regular sized drinks, hot and cold, including various types of water, many with vitamins or some such. Juices, some sodas, gelatin drinks (and by that I mean PIECES of gelatin .. kinda gross if you didnt grow up getting use to that stuff) and of course tea tea tea ... green tea ... and some lemon teas and milk teas. And coffee! Okay off subject of water but needed to make a point.

In a fast paced, away from home and a kitchen sink for most of the day/night, JAPAN in light of modern lifestyles NEED those bottled drinks .. and bottled WATER is most important. We all know that overdrinking anything but water can be bad for your health.

In light of reports, I think its great if we change containers and substances as need be to provide more safe and healthy products. HOWEVER, do not think we will avoid buying bottled drinks due to some reports. Heck, the AIR I breathe in Japan is more dangerous to my health!!

p.s. last word .. flouridization ... now THATS what its really all about.

p.s.s. no flouride here and thee best teeth cleansing products and dentists right here in Japan. No reason to have bad teeth outside of personal neglect.

[Bill]

Without knowing the brand names this is nothing more than a scare tactic! If you want people to take you seriously about this information then name the brands that were tested?

[Brian]

Um Bill,

why don't you check out their report? I'm sure it's on their website. The organization issuing a report doesn't have control over what a news service chooses to print. It's not a scare tactic, it's a scientific study, what do you want it handed to you on a silver platter?

[Reader]

Hey, remember back in the 80's before bottled water how tons of people were getting sick and diseased by drinking tap water ... yeah, neither did I.

[Ruben Gurrola]

Even if it say's spring water, about only 6 to 8% of it has to be spring water in order to be considered spring water. The rest is just re-used water, ah what the water-bottle companies don't you. My roommate did a study on this in his Food Science Lab last spring.

[Tim]

Why would anyone pay such a ridiculously high price for bottled water that has written on the label "bottled from a municipal source". You know what they say about a fool and his money...

[voxunius]

I don't drink spring water because I'm worried about the chemicals. I drink it because I don't like the taste of tap water. And when I used to work in Ichikawa, Chiba (Japan) I drank the tap water (used to make hot instant green tea) and I got sick every single time until I figured out what was happening. Japanese tap water is supposedly safer than American tap water, so I doubt I switch my routine any time soon in the States.

Sam's Choice tastes bad, most likely the people who buy it would drink tap water as well.

[Common Tator]

our slice of suburbia is zoned against wells, and the town water has failed cadmium 2 out of three years. The chlorination is also very high to offset organic contamination from the town's ancient pipes.

We buy Poland Spring water by the 6-gallon box (oddly, it's cheaper than having it delivered). Looking forward to seeing if there's any good quality measures on Poland Spring - appreciate the links!

[Someone]

Um Bill,

The news article may not have mentioned every brand, but they did mention the largest, WALMART. Did you not read that?

[Josh]

I don't understand why Bettina Boxall didn't discuss the chemicals in plastic that leach into bottled water. Think about people who only drink bottled water for years and years thinking it's safe and not realizing their bodies have been slowly but steadily absorbing the chemicals from plastic that leach into the water. Bettina Boxall should investigate and do a report on that. Or is that not PC for LA Times? Chemicals in plastic used for water bottles that leach into the water is the real story here.

[Kip]

Now wait. Let's get all of the facts out. I am buying water that says either "Distilled": or "Purified" which the label says can either be purified by "reverse osmosis" or "distillation; and ozonation. I also buy spring water that has gone through reverse osmosis and ozonation.

I buy bottled water because buying a distiller or a reverse osmosis filtration system are very expensive. Regarding reverse osmosis, I have to trust that they are not only filtering the water, but also changing the filters ON TIME. If we are being lied to, we have been defrauded out lots of money each year.

"Municipal" water source does not matter. It's the pricey filtration systems the water has, SUPPOSEDLY, gone through that I am paying for.

I want justice if I have been lied to.

[T Mosher]

The bottled water industry created the need for their product. Were there people dying of dehydration in the US before their product existed?

I never have seen the need for a product that costs upwards of a dollar that I can get out of my own tap or a water fountain for almost no money at all.

[Che]

Remember when there were clean drinking fountains in public thoroughfares, sports venues, theaters and even some restaurants? Then some time in the 1980’s there seemed to this passive-aggressive campaign to ditch these for vending machines because $$$ could be made. Plenty of excuses, hyped scare tactic media stories and urban myths of water fountain poisonings, along with obvious neglect and oversight of these free drink sources spelled their demise. Do they even have drinking fountains in K-12 schools anymore? Bottled water is worse for your health when the pliable plastic it’s stored in is taken to account. It's bad for the environment (and thus, your health) due to the energy it costs to manufacture the plastic, bottle the water and ship it to your local store or vending machine. How many millions of gallons of gasoline are wasted, yearly, shipping a liquid you can get for free from you local sink? Talk about decadence! Massive amounts of plastic bottles fill landfills whose chemicals seep into the environment. Now to confirm it’s no better than your local tap sources. We’re too lazy to go to a local sink or water fountain to fill up? No one is that parched that they can’t wait to get to their destination to quench their thirst. Please don’t give me some apologetic remark about Japanese culture and vending machines – just because we hold someone in high esteem does not mean everything they do is right.

[Flotsham]

Of course its a scare tactic. Backing my assertion, that this study is agenda driven, the journalist notes that NRDC did a similar study in 1999 and came to the same conclusions. Well, lets take a look-see at NRDCs agenda with a little websearch. HMMMM! According to their own website "NRDC is the nation's most effective environmental action group". GEE! no political agenda there! Are you still stuck on stupid? Fine here it is spelled out: Bottled water is extremely damaging to the environment. Do a search kids. After that search you will see how bad it is, and then see the connection on why an environmental protection special interest group would sponsor a "scientific" study that makes bottled water seems like a useless waste of money that may be worse for you then tap water. But hey what do I know, I only took Stats II lab by a well published professor who showed us all sorts of neat tricks to bend stats to your agenda, for the right price of course.

[G]

A few months ago there was an article in the Gulf News, in Dubai, UAE.

The article stated that Dubai Municipality had came across some samples of bottled water containing heavy metals and organic cancerigenous compounds, but the brands of the water were not mentioned.

Upon being harassed by my person demanding a disclosure of the brand of mineral water DM merely sent me an email stating there was no need of discloing the names, since the water never reached the market.

...no comments. But you get the point.

USA, Japan, Middle East...it is all over.

In the end it would seem the best thing to do is have a reverse osmosis destiller at home an simply buy a pack of salts and add them yourself.

It is distressing to know the water we think we can trust has the potential to poison us.

And what is worse is that we are even ripped off in the process. Brilliant!

[Geno - USA]

Ever hear of water purification tablets? Surprise, they are made out of chlorine!

Also, Sam's club water is not known to have a large market share.

[Daniel]

I usually use bottled water only when it's convenient - on the go. In my house I use refrigerated tap water. Taste is obviously an issue for some, but a Britta filter does wonders. Multiple studies show that bottled water isn't healthier than tap water in America, yet health-conscious people still buy it! The same people are more likely to be "eco-conscious." There's an obvious conflict between (mis)perceived health benefits and obvious environmental damage. Even locally bottled water requires delivery trucks burning fossil fuels, and many people buy water from overseas! Ridiculous. Plastic bottles are no friends of the future earth inhabitants either. For people who are concerned about personal and environmental health, the choice is obvious - stop buying bottled water!

[Mass]

I don't get the sense from reading this article that a distinction was drawn in the study between TYPES of "bottled water".

That omission was a little too obvious to be legitimate.

Bottled "Drinking Water" is usually clearly marked as being filtered from "municipal sources". Bottled "Spring Water" typically doesn't bear that marking.

I've worked in a spring water bottling facility in Colorado before. The facility was situated in the mountains alongside a moving, natural waterway and the bottles were filled by a machine. I can't be positive the machine's input was the stream but it would be quite the expensive and overly elaborate ruse, otherwise.

I've seen the municipal water reclamation process in action before and I can tell you that what goes into the system is positively DISCONCERTING TO THE MAX. I mean, CLOTHING could be seen moving along with the water into the first set of strainers.

So anything marked "municipal" gets the Gas Face™ from me as a matter of policy and tap water is a no-no. I don't know about yours, but my shower head is a strange burnt sienna in color.

[Steve]

As a person who workes in the bottled water industry, the information that is written in this article is misleading and alarmist.

There are a lot of different filtration systems, and a lot of different water sources used. If the water is labeled as Spring Water it is sourced from a aquafer that is the source of a spring, it does not indicate how the water is filtered nor does it indicate the cleanliness or the purity of the water.

There are also bottled waters who's sources are municipal water sources. This water starts at least at the same quality as municipal sources and is often filtered which removes clorine and much of the solids that are acceptable by the EPA for municipal water sources. Most municipal water sources are very good and the water they produce is very high quality and void of contaminants.

There are three primary types of filtration that are used for bottled water, deionazation, ultra filtration, and reverse osmosis. If the water is labeled as purified water it can come from almost any source including your municipal water source but is generally filtered using reverse osmosis and has been injected with ozone to kill bacteria, and eliminate oxygen in the product to inhibit future bacteria growth. For the most part, this type of filtration strips clorine from the water which many people think improves the flavor of the water. Each type of filtration meets different needs and have different strengths depending on the water source that is used, ie. surface water, or well water and the makeup of desolved and suspended particulate in the water.

Just like anything else that is packaged, there are manufactures who are cleaner than others and there are companies whose standards are better than others.

Bottled water is a convenience. That is what the manufacturer is hoping that you will pay for. The water inside is probably as high quality or higher quality as your local municipal water, the container is as clean or cleaner than reusing a container, glass or cup in your home.

The bottled water industry is not trying to get you to choose between using municipal water or bottled water it is putting its product out there to give you another choice of purchasing a drinik that you want to take along with you. Do you want to buy a drink of water or a drink with cafeen and sugar? Do you want to drink from a public fountain or a sealed bottle of water?

[sheila]

why don't people all put PUR filters on their taps (they are like $30) and only use bottled when they are out running around (and preferably use a reusable bottle)? there is no reason to drink bottled water at home.

[Peter Pan]

To the first poster saying to look for "spring water" because that water will be 10 times cleaner. LOL. The details hinge on the definition of "spring". Any faucet is a spring, and water from it is "spring water". Don't believe me?

[Keith Moody]

I've done some work with the American Chemistry Council, and chlorine is really the best and safest way to ensure our water is safe to drink. It's been used for this purpose for over 100 years, and it's really what makes our tap water safe and viable for ingestion.

[jsrfaw]

They need to put bottled water in some other kind of container. The Plastic bottles that are presently being used are one of the biggest hazards to fish in the ocean. There are over 4 million of these bottles thrown in our water ways every day here in the United States alone and the sorry part of it is they could fill a thermos full of water out of the tap at home and take that to work to drink each day. They would be drinking safer water and saving our oceans and lakes from harmful contamination that is killing fish, sea turtles and ruining reefs arou the world. Drinking water out of a plastic bottle is just some kind of fad, nothing else.

[Elya Crosotocovas]

I am doing a science project on this topic and i want to thank you for bringing it to the attention of the people of America! If you could please include more info about this topic, i'd greatly appreciate it!

Sincerely,
Elya Crosotocovas