What's In Your Bottled Water?

Bottled water might not be the squeaky-clean alternative to tap that you thought. Read up before you down another bottle.

- K. Aleisha Fetters

You know you need to stay hydrated. So what do you do on your way into the gym? At the office? During an airport layover? Grab a bottle of water. You’re not alone — about one-third of Americans regularly drink the stuff, according to the National Resources Defense Council. The problem is, few guzzlers have ever considered what’s actually in those bottles. After all, it’s just good ole H2O, right?

Not necessarily. When the council tested more than 1,000 bottles from 103 brands, it found that approximately one-third of them contained significant contamination levels. And in one investigation by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., the average water bottle tested contained eight different pollutants — such as Tylenol, heavy metals, fertilizers and industrial solvents.

While the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of regulating tap water, bottled water falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, which has set forth limits as to what levels of 90 different contaminants are permitted in bottled water. Then each state’s health department is in charge of enforcing those limits, says Karim Mashouf, founder and CEO of Eternal Water. He explains that bottled water producers — just like municipal water plants — undergo regular testing before the bottles hit the market.

However, sometimes water gets through the cracks, so to speak, and a recall is ordered. One of the most infamous recalls occurred in 2015 when Niagara Bottling issued a voluntary recall of spring water produced at two Pennsylvania plants because of possible E. coli contamination.