Bottled and Sold

According to Gleick, the system for testing and monitoring the quality of bottled water is so flawed that we simply have no comprehensive assessment of actual bottled water quality. The inadequacies of US rules for testing bottled water do not mean that bottled-water quality is poor, however. If bottled water was monitored as consistently, frequently and accurately as tap water, the evidence might show that it was just as good, or even better on average, than tap water. Given how much consumers pay for it, we certainly have the right to expect it to be better.

Most of our tap water is completely safe; most of our bottled water is probably completely safe. To know for sure, we must look carefully; however, we are simply not looking carefully enough. The bad news is that, when we do actually look, we find evidence that there are potentially serious quality problems with bottled water. The most famous example is when in 1991 Perrier was discovered to be contaminated with benzene. But this example is not the only one.

After months of requests and two Freedom of Information Act requests to the US Food and Drug Administration (which regulates some bottled waters), Gleick received a list of recalls of bottled waters in the US. Combined with other research, a list of more than 100 bottled water recalls (affecting millions of bottles of water) was compiled. This list (soon to be posted online) includes a remarkable list of contaminants. In addition to the benzene found in Perrier, bottled water has been found to contain mold, sodium hydroxide, kerosene, styrene, algae, yeast, tetrahydrofuran, sand, fecal coliforms and other forms of bacteria, elevated chlorine, glass particles, sanitiser and (the author's own personal favorite example) crickets.

In addition to bottled-water quality, the book discusses advertising and marketing, weird bottled waters claims, disappearing water fountains, conflicting and weak laws protecting consumers, and the growing revolt against bottled water.