Bottled Water: Melting the Myth of Purity

In a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 47% of respondents said they drank bottled water because of what they saw as health and safety problems with tap water. But the idea that all bottled water is pure is a marketing myth. Bottled water generally is no cleaner, safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water. Plastic bottles can also leach chemicals into the water.

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates only the 30 or 40 percent of bottled water sold across state lines.
• According to a Natural Resources Defense Council study of 103 bottled water brands, about one-quarter of the brands tested contained bacterial or chemical contamination in some samples at levels that violated “enforceable state standards or warning levels.”
• The same study found one-fifth of the tested brands “exceeded state bottled water microbial guidelines in at least some samples.”
• When combined with bromide, ozonation—a process increasingly used to disinfect bottled water—can produce bromate, a possible human carcinogen. In 2006, FDA ordered a recall of several brands of bottled water with bromate levels that exceeded the standard of 10 parts per billion.
• The FDA has less than one full-time employee devoted to bottled water oversight. The rules apply only to bottled water packaged and sold across state lines, which leaves out about 60 to 70 percent of water bottled and sold within a single state. FDA regulations also exempt carbonated bottled water.
• The FDA requires that companies test for bacterial contamination in water only once per week, and they must test only four empty bottles once every three months for bacterial contamination. When it comes to chemical, physical, or radiological contaminants, a sample of water must be checked only once a year.
• The FDA, charged with overseeing the health and safety of bottled water, does not test bottled water for phthalates like DEP—a chemical that is used to produce plastics water bottles and which is also a potential cancer agent in humans.
  
• The EPA requires that water systems serving more than one million residents test 300 water samples per month, while utilities serving three million people or more must collect and test 480 samples monthly, far more than the once–a–week test for bottled water.

Read more about the environmental, health, economic, and equity concerns associated with bottled water in our report, Take Back the Tap: Why Choosing Tap Water Over Bottled Water is Better for Your Health, Your Pocketbook, and the Environment.