Today, every person is using bottled water of various brands. Are all brands providing safe water to their consumers?
Bottled water is generally safe for consumption, however it depends of course on the source of the water, and what you consider to be safe. In some countries (e.g. China, Egypt) tap water is not safe to drink and therefore bottled water is considered to be the safer. In countries where tap water is safe to drink, drinking bottled water is largely a personal (if more expensive) choice.
That being said, bottled waters can be regulated differently to tap water. Some types of bottled water are tapped from a particular source and are considered a "natural" product, therefore do not have to meet the same requirements as tap water. This depends on country regulations.
Some disease outbreaks have been linked to bottled water. The CDC has some examples of these outbreaks via their link: http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/bottled/. These are due to microbial contaminants. A publication looking at microbial contaminants in still bottled water in Greece found that 11% were contaminated: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16271413
In addition, some people are concerned that plasticisers and other chemicals used in the manufacture of bottles or processing of the water leach into the water at higher levels than would be found in tap waters. Another study of chemical contaminants in bottled waters found in Alabama found that most bottled waters had high levels of Total Organic Compounds, and a few exceeded regulations for arsenic contamination. Spring waters had greater levels of minerals than purified waters. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11874039
Its not about the packaged bottled water but it should include RO water from home RO purifiers as well. There is debate going on higher TDS values of normal/ground water (>200-
Dear Julia K Bird
Please talk about your country
Tap water in Egypt is safe
I would refer you, and some commentators to this article.
http://courses.washington.edu/h2owaste/assignments/ExtraBottled%20Water.pdf
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Nutrition and Dietetics
- Nutritional Medicine
- Food Science