Americans increasingly are turning to bottled water, making it a $4 billion-a-year business in the United States. Millions of us are willing to pay 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than we do for tap water -- though we probably rarely think of it that way.

However, some bottled water contains bacterial contaminants, and several brands of bottled water contain synthetic organic chemicals (such as industrial solvents, chemicals from plastic, or trihalomethanes -- the by-products of the chemical reaction between chlorine and organic matter in water) or inorganic contaminants (such as arsenic, a known carcinogen) in at least some bottles (see Chapter 3 and our accompanying Technical Report).

Moreover, as Chapter 4 documents, bottled water regulations have gaping holes, and both state and federal bottled water regulatory programs are severely underfunded.

In Chapter 5 we present evidence that there is substantially misleading marketing of some bottled water, and in Chapter 6 we argue that consumers should be informed about the contaminants found in the water they purchase. NRDC's major findings and recommendations are summarized below.

Dr. Mercola's Comment

If you consume bottled water regularly you might be interested in viewing the entire report which is somewhere around 100 pages long. The beauty of the NET is that the report is absolutely free and delivery is instant!

Click Here for Report