Identification

• Anywhere from 25 to 45 percent of bottled water consumed in the United States comes from a municipal tap. According to news organizations MSNBC and ABC News, both of the big soda manufacturers, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, sell bottled water that is essentially municipal water with minerals added.
  
  Many companies selling this type of water put it through several treatments before the bottling process, but other companies bottle it straight from the faucet. All this water is commonly labeled "drinking water."
  
  

Types

• For bottled water to have the label "purified," it must have undergone treatment through reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, or another purifying system. Distilled water also can be considered purified. Purified water often has minerals added, because people prefer the taste of water with at least some level of minerals.
  
  Other types of labels on bottled water you may see include: Artesian, which is from a well where the water flows upwards without pumping; mineral, which has naturally-occurring levels of minerals and trace elements; and spring water, where water flows naturally to the earth's surface from an underground formation.
  
  

Significance

• If water is labeled "mineral water," it must contain a certain amount of minerals and trace elements that occur naturally at the source with none added. Typically, these include chromium, copper, iron, lithium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, and silica. Some people like to drink mineral water for the health benefits of these extra minerals, but scientists say that few brands offer a significant level of minerals to justify the extra cost.
  
  

Considerations

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows bottled water to have low levels of ingredients such as sodium, fluoride, and an antimicrobial agent. A certain low level of contaminants, which is similar to that found in tap water, is also allowed.
  
  

Warning

• A 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group on 10 well-known brands of bottled water found contaminants in the water. They discovered low levels of disinfectants, fertilizer, pain medication, byproducts of chlorine, and a broad range of industrial chemicals. (It should be noted that all the levels of contaminants were below federal standards.)
  
  The samples were tested at a University of Iowa water quality laboratory. Each brand was found to contain, on average, eight contaminants. The researchers were also able to pinpoint which area two of the waters came from because they could identify the water treatment plants by their specific chemical characteristics.
  
  California's standards are much higher than the federal ones, and several samples of Sam's Choice sold in California had a higher contaminant level than the state law allows. Sam's Choice and the grocery chain Giant's Acadia brand both exceeded chemical levels determined by the bottled water industry's safety standards.
  
  A 1999 study by the National Resources Defense Council also found low levels of contaminants in bottled water, including arsenic, heterotrophic bacteria, nitrate (fertilizer residue), and others. Again, the levels were within federally-acceptable range.