Americans Choose Bottled Water for Safety and Quality. Are They Right?

Bottled water has gone from a convenience to an alternative drinking-water system, with about a third of Americans choosing it over tap water most or all of the time. Why? More than 90% of those buying bottled water cite “safety” and “quality” as the reasons, but while it’s true that it can indeed be safe, this isn’t always the case. Much has been written about the trash problem created by the billions of disposable plastic drinking-water bottles sold each year in the U.S. Far less is understood about the contents of those bottles. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from 2009, the most recent data available, about 70% of the bottled water sold in the U.S. was not subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation. That’s because if water is bottled and sold in the same state, as is the case for some smaller labels, it’s considered intrastate commerce and is therefore regulated by the state. This isn’t necessarily a problem–some states’ regulations are stricter than the FDA’s–but the GAO report also said these rules can be less comprehensive than those for tap water, which must comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Bottled water under the FDA’s purview may not get the scrutiny you expect either. This is not a reflection of the Trump Administration’s antiregulation bias. Bottled water was an $18.5 bill...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Nutrition Source Type: news