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Tap or Bottled Water, Which is Better?

Is bottled water safer or cleaner than tap water?

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First published: 11.Oct.2018

Overview. Tap vs. Bottled Water: Pros and Cons

Bottled water consumption has increased substantially over the past decade and this growth has been fueled by two main drivers:

  • Almost 94% of Americans (1) believe that bottled water is a healthier choice than soft drinks.
  • Consumers perceive their tap water quality as poor and a potential health risk.

However most bottled water is sourced from the municipal tap water supply, and there are risks associated to the chemicals and micorplastics in the plastic bottles, and the waste these bottles cause due to lack of recycling, and energy demand.

In this article, we will explore the facts and evaluate the risks and benefits of both tap water and bottled water.

In this Article (Index)

Molecular structure of PET. Its chemical formula
Molecular structure of PET, the plastic used in your water bottles

Is tap water of poor quality?

Incidents such as the one that took place in the city of Flint, Michigan, are one of the reasons that lead the public to distrust the quality of municipal drinking water (2).

The Flint Water Crisis of 2014

A switch in the source of the municipal water supply and incorrect treatment (chlorination) of raw water caused lead contamination of the water supplied to the city's 100,000 city residents.

Lead leached from the water pipes into the drinking water. It possible that an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease (caused by the Legionella bacteria) was due to the same cause. This outbreak provoked 12 deaths.

Many consumers opt for drinking bottled water to avoid the health risks that they perceive in supposedly polluted tap water. Hu (2011) (3) stated that: "U.S. consumers are more likely to [drink] bottled water as their primary drinking water source when they perceive that drinking water is not safe."

Perception of "Poor" Quality: taste

Doria (2009) (4), pointed out that the organoleptic properties of water are one of the factors that influence how consumers estimate water quality.

Organoleptic properties

Organoleptic are the properties of food and water that are experienced through the senses: taste, sight, smell, and touch. From the Greek words "organon" = "organ" and "leptiko" = "to take in".

Distrust in water suppliers and the perception of chemicals in the water such as lead, chlorine, or its "hardness" are also important factors that fuel the belief that tap water is of poor quality.

Levêque and Burns (2017) (5) found that the people in a mid-sized West Virginia city consumed bottled water because they "were most likely to perceive health risks from tap water consumption;" wile the residents using a household filter for tap water had better organoleptic (taste) perceptions regarding the same tap water.

Facts: how safe is tap water?

According to the CDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (6), "The United States has one of the safest public drinking water supplies in the world. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system."

However, Allaire (2018) (7) reported that in 2015 "9% of Community Water Systems in our study sample violated health-based water quality standards, affecting nearly 21 million people. During each of the past 34 y[ears], 9-45 million people were affected, representing 4-28% of US population."

This is supported by data from the CDC (6a) about outbreaks of illness associated to tap water: 42 outbreaks in 2013-2014 involving 1,006 cases which lead to 124 hospitalizations and, believe it or not, 13 deaths.

Bottled water on the other hand only had 1 outbreak with 2 cases, nobody went to the hospital and there were no fatalities.

Nevertheless, bottled water has been recalled due to quality issues (8):

  • Nearly 40 million Niagara water bottles were recalled after the spring water source tested positive for the E. coli bacteria in 2015
  • 8 million Dasani water bottles (made by Coca Cola) had mold and plastic residues in their contents.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Drinking water?

The causes that trigger inflammatory bowel disease or IBD are unknown. Forbes (2016) (9) investigated the microbes in drinking water as one of the possible causes of this disease. The study found that areas with a high incidence of IBD had lower frequencies of Proteobacteria like Gammaproteobacteria. They also had a higher presence of Bradyrhizobium and Pseudomonas than areas with a lower incidence of IBD. So tap water supply may be an environmental source of IBD triggers.

Learn about the microbes in your drinking water

Get your EPA Water Quality Report

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) requires that community water systems provide an annual drinking water quality report (Consumer Confidence Report).

Request your report and get full details about your local drinking water quality. They are sent out by July 1 each year. Find your Consumer Confidence Report.

The Germs in Bottled Water

Raj (2005) (10) studied the microbes that were present in bottled water after taking only one sip from the bottle and compared it to tap water under the same conditions:

  • "The bacterial count in bottled water increased dramatically, from less than 1 colony per milliliter (col/mL) to 38,000 col/mL over 48 hours of storage at 37 degrees C."
  • "Interestingly, tap water resulted in only minimal growth"

Raj recommends storing opened bottled water in the refrigerator because cooling it reduces bacterial colonies by up to 84%.

What is Bottled Water anyway?

Bottled water is drinking water that is packaged in plastic or glass water bottles.

It is now the "No.1 beverage product by volume in the US" after overtaking soft drinks in 2017 (1).

In 2022, Americans consumed 46.5 gallons of bottled water per capita year (36).

It may be carbonated or still and it may be mineral water, but most of the bottled water sold in the US is treated tap water.

Most Bottled Water is just bottled Tap Water

According to Food & Water Watch the share of bottled water using municipal tap water as a source rose from 51.8% in 2009 to almost two-thirds of the supply in 2014 (64%) (8).

This means that only 1 out of 3 bottles of water sold in the US is mineral water from a natural spring.

The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) that groups bottled water manufacturers calls the bottled tap water "Purified water" and states that "Bottled water from a municipal source is not 'tap water in a bottle'" (37).

Take-home point

Bottled water is mostly tap water that has been purified.

Mineral Water

Not all bottled water is "Mineral Water".

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (11), defines mineral water as follows:

Water containing not less than 250 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids (TDS), coming from a source tapped at one or more boreholes or springs, originating from a geologically and physically protected underground water source... No minerals may be added to this water. FDA

Tap water health risks

Two elements found in water are generally regarded as a risk, let's see what science has to say.

Chlorine

Faucet filling glass with water
Tap water

The use of chlorine as a biocide to kill the germs found in the water was first suggested in 1894. Great Britain became the first country to implement it in the early 1900s. Chlorinated water dramatically reduced the incidence of typhoid deaths. The US followed the British example and wiped out all waterborne diseases (cholera, hepatitis, dysentery, and typhoid).

Chlorine has the disadvantage of having a particular taste and odor that can be detected by most individuals at concentrations as low as 0.3 parts per million.

This organoleptic perception of chlorine in water is the leading cause of complaints related to drinking water taste and smell.

Is Chlorine Carcinogenic?

Chlorine reacts with organic matter in raw water and produces Trihalomethanes (THMs), also known as "Disinfection by-products" or DBPs. These by-products have raised concerns about their safety.

In 1990 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (1990) (12) reviewed the existing research and concluded that: "There is inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of chlorinated drinking-water in humans... Chlorinated drinking-water is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans."

More recently, Villanueva (2015) (13) reported that "Epidemiological evidence has shown a consistent association between long-term exposure to trihalomethanes and the risk of bladder cancer, although the causal nature of the association is not conclusive. Evidence concerning other cancer sites is insufficient or mixed.".

In 2020, a research team (Evlampidou et al.) (14) measured THM levels in drinking water in twenty-six European Union countries, finding that the mean value for THM was 11.7μg/L. Citing a recent meta-analysis which found that "men exposed to annual mean THM levels >25μg/L had a 35% increased bladder cancer risk ..., and those exposed to >50μg/L had a 51% increased risk ... compared to levels <5μ g/L."

They calculated that THM caused 6,561 cases of bladder cancer each year in the EU; roughly 5.5% of the yearly 120,000 cases of bladder cancer diagnosed each year.

However, like Villanueva, they too recognized that these cancer-linking studies were limited, making it difficult to "unequivocally conclude a causal association" between chlorine and bladder cancer.

Take-home point

The antimicrobial activity of chlorine has saved millions of lives globally. There is evidence of a link between chlorine generated THM and bladder cancer, but further research is needed to solve the issue.

Fluoride

Fluoride is present in many natural water sources and some mineral waters, and its effect of rendering tooth enamel resistant to decay was reported in the early 1900s by McKay's and Black's studies on fluorosis in Colorado.

The U.S. has artificially fluoridated water since 1945 and its positive effects were very clear: children who drank fluoridated water had fewer cavities than those who drank non-fluoridated water.

The latest figures (2014) show that 75% of Americans drink fluoridated water. The fluoride level in drinking water is set at 0.7 mg per liter (15).

The beneficial impact of fluoride is enormous: this type of water reduces tooth decay by 25% in both children and adults.

Fluoride Health Concerns

As expected, consumers also have risk perceptions associated with fluoridation. Knox (2017) (16), lists five of the major themes for opposition to fluoridation: skepticism, health effects, ethics, environmental impacts, and economics. This study also voiced concerns about 'fraudulent research' and the influence of industry on government bodies.

Bucher (1991) (17) studied the effect of sodium fluoride in rats and mice at concentrations which were between 16 and 113 times higher than the recommended level mentioned further up and found that some animals developed dental fluorosis (mottling of the teeth) and some female rats had increased osteosclerosis (abnormal hardening of bone). There were no increases in neoplasms (tumors) in female rats or male rats. There was equivocal (ambiguous or questionable) evidence of carcinogenic activity of sodium fluoride in male rats based on the occurrence of a small number of osteosarcomas (the most common type of bone cancer) in treated animals.

Take-home point

The benefits of fluoride far outweigh any risks of stained teeth, as for cancer, there is no evidence supporting it as a risk factor.

The health risks of bottled water

Bottled water's most common packaging is the Polyethylene Terephthalate (or PET) plastic bottle. PET is much safer than the PVC bottles used in the past whose free vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) content, a well known carcinogenic, could migrate from the plastic into the bottle's content.

However, there are some concerns regarding the migration of PET production residues into the water inside the bottle.

plastic water bottles on ice
Bottled Water. Source

Acetaldehyde

Acetaldehyde (AA for short) is generated during the polymerization reaction in the manufacture of PET and in the melting process that makes the PET bottles.

AA has a distinct smell and taste, often described as sweet plastic-like. It remains inside the plastic matrix, but under certain conditions can leach out of it:

  • Bach (2012) (18) reported that carbonated bottled water promotes the release of acetaldehyde from the PET into the water. However, this effect wasn't detected with still bottled water. Bach also noticed that AA exceeded the water's organoleptic threshold (between 20-40g/L) so that the odor of water stored in PET bottles compared to that of soft drinks, could be detected at very low levels, due to the absence of masking flavor compounds.
  • Seitz and Stickel (2009) (19), mention acetaldehyde as a risk factor that can provoke cancer, but their study is focused on the AA generated during the metabolization of alcohol in alcoholics, not in PET.

Antimony

PET polymer is made with the help of a catalyst that accelerates chemical reactions. The most common catalyst compounds are based on a metalloid called antimony (Sb). Almost all of the catalyst used to make PET is recovered but very small trace amounts of it remain trapped inside the PET.

This residual antimony can migrate or leach out of the plastic bottle and move into the bottle's contents a process that can accelerate if the bottle is heated or microwaved.

Although antimony is rated as having low toxicity, it is limited to 6 parts per billion (6 ppb) in drinking water by the US regulations and 5 ppb in the EU.

Shotyk and Krachler (2007) (20) determined the concentration of antimony in 132 brands of bottled water from 28 countries. This is what they found:

  • Two brands surpassed the Japanese maximum limit of 2 ppb.
  • Antimony concentrations increased with time even if stored at room temperature: by +19% in 14 Canadian brands after 6 months and by +90% in 48 European brands from 11 countries.
  • Antimony concentration ranged from 0.28 to >2 ppb.
  • Tap water used as control only contained 0.07 parts per trillion, and well water had 0.026 parts per trillion, some 4,000 to 76,000 times less than bottled water.

Nevertheless, these values are well below the limits mentioned further up (6 ppb in the US or 5 ppb in the EU).

Westerhoff (2008) (21) tested bottled water in Arizona and the antimony levels ranged from 0.095 to 0.521 ppb, which were below the maximum allowed value of 6 ppb. However, they pointed out that "Summertime temperatures inside of cars, garages, and enclosed storage areas can exceed 65 degrees C in Arizona, and thus could promote antimony leaching from PET bottled waters... and, for exposure temperature of 65 degrees C the exposure duration necessary to exceed the 6 ppb level is only 38 days."

Sax (2010) (22) looked into antimony as an Endocrine disruptor (a chemical that interferes with the endocrine (hormonal) systems causing cancer, birth defects, and other health issues) and concluded that "Some evidence suggests that antimony may be at least partially responsible for these estrogenic effects."

This agrees with Choe (2003) (23), whose studies were the first to suggest that antimony may be estrogenic.

Chemicals with estrogenic activity (EA)

Chun (2011) (24) tested chemicals that mimic or interfere with the naturally occurring estrogens; these chemicals are defined as "having an estrogenic activity (EA)". And they are endocrine disruptors.

One of the most known endocrine disruptors is BPA (Bisphenol-A), a plasticizer -compounds used to soften rigid plastics.

BPA has been banned in several countries and some US states for use in children's bottles and containers. PET does not contain BPA, but it may contain other EAs.

According to Chun, as the polymerization of monomers is often incomplete and certain additives don't bond to the plastic's polymer structure, chemicals with an EA can leach from the plastic. Leaching is accelerated by exposure to ultraviolet radiation (sunlight's UV), heat, microwave radiation, boiling, or dishwashing.

Chun cites a monomer used in the manufacture of PET, dimethyl terephthalate monomer (or DMT) as exhibiting the "EA" effect, adding that "breakdown products of dimethyl terephthalate, PET, and PETG resins probably contain and release phenolic moieties that have EA."

Plastics and toxicity

Some toxic chemicals are employed as raw materials for the monomers that in turn are the building blocks used to make PET.

DMT is based on aromatic compounds known as xylenes and it is reacted with ethylene glycol (the main component of your car's antifreeze) to produce PET.

Another route is to combine ethylene glycol (the antifreeze ingredient) and terephthalic acid (which is also made from xylenes).

According to a report by the Berkeley Plastics Task Force (1996) (25), making a 16-ounce bottle out of PET creates more than 100 times as much air and water pollution as making the bottle out of glass. Furthermore, glass has the advantage of not leaching pollutants into the water inside the bottle.

Microplastic contamination in Bottled Water

Mason (2018) (26) studied the presence of "microplastics" (tiny microscopic pieces of plastic) in bottled water. They found that:

  • 93% of bottled water showed some signs of microplastic contamination.
  • This two times the amount detected in tap water.
  • On average there were 335 particles per liter of water (size range from 6.5 to >100 μm).
  • The most common plastic is polypropylene -which is used in bottle caps.
  • 4% of the particles also contained industrial lubricants.
  • "Contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and/or the bottling process itself."

Drinking bottled water can increase your intake of microplastics 22.5 times according to a study by Cox et al., (2019) (27): The average American may ingest between 39,000 and 52,000 particles each year but those drinking water from "bottled sources may be ingesting an additional 90,000 microplastics annually, compared to 4,000 microplastics for those who consume only tap water."

Ingesting microplastics can irritate, cause inflammation in the digestive system and alter the gut microbiota (38).

Take-home point

Acetaldehyde and antimony leach into the water from the plastic bottle, toxic, with hormonal effects.
Sunlight, heat, UV rays accelerate the process.
Microplastics are found in all bottled water and also pose a risk.

Sustainability and Environmental Costs of Bottled Water

Environmental Impact

As mentioned above, plastics do have an impact on the environment through the generation of toxic pollutants during their manufacture. But there is the additional issue of the disposal of plastics and their final environmental fate.

Environmentally conscious consumers worry that bottled water has a serious impact on the environment in comparison to regular tap water, and their concerns are well-founded: bottled water is not eco-friendly. Consider these "costs":

Packaging costs

Bottled water requires a bottle, which involves its manufacture (bottle and cap) from plastics and the final fate of the empty discarded bottle.

The Association of Plastic Recyclers and the American Chemistry Council informed (2016) (28) that the total plastic bottle recycling collection rate was a dismal 29.7%.

This means that 7 out of ten bottles go into landfills, litter, or incineration.

The US per capita consumption of plastic bottles is slightly above 30 lbs. per year (13.6 kg). So each American only recycles 9 lbs. of plastic bottles a year (4.1 kg), discarding the other 21 lbs. (9.5 kg).

The tab for plastic waste is picked up by the Municipalities, who pay over $100 million per year for disposal of plastic water bottles (8).

The Cost of Bottled Water

Waste Water

Each gallon of bottled water requires an input of 1.32 gallons of water: so end users only get two thirds of the water input into the process, one third is wasted.

Waste Energy

Gleick and Cooley (2009) (29), compared the energy required to manufacture, bottle, transport, distribute, and chill mineral water (recycling and reuse were not considered in this study) with the energy required to treat and distribute tap water.
They found that bottled water requires 2,000 times more energy than tap water.

To put it into perspective, they give a clear example: "the annual consumption of bottled water in the US in 2007 required an energy input equivalent to between 32 and 54 million barrels of oil or a third of a percent of total US primary energy consumption." This has a grave impact in a world undergoing climate change.

Cost comparison of Tap and Bottled waters

Mineral Water costs 2000 times the price of Tap Water

Food & Water Watch (8) found that one gallon of single-serve bottled water costs on average almost $9.50, which is 2.000 times the cost of a gallon of tap water ($0.005) and four times the cost of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline or three times the price of a gallon of milk.

The benefits of both bottled and tap water

Health benefits of the minerals dissolved in both bottled and tap water

Mineral water contains dissolved elements and compounds that it picked up as it percolated through the bedrock and sediments to its sources. These appear in small (trace) amounts, but they can and do affect your health.

These are good reasons to drink bottled mineral water. Remember though, that not all bottled water is mineral water.

Minerals in tap water

Tap water also contains minerals. Azoulay (1991) (30) sampled tap water from 21 major American cities and found that it "may contain high levels of Ca2+, Mg2+, and Na+ and may provide clinically important portions of the recommended dietary intake of these minerals."

Magnesium and Calcium Protect your Bones

Calcium and Magnesium ions dissolve in water, and the higher the content, the harder the water is said to be.

Two studies found that "hard" water has a protective effect against cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases:

  • Jiang (2016) (31) found that a high content of magnesium in drinking water reduces the risk of Coronary Heart Disease mortality in Europeans (and especially in Scandinavians).
  • Chun-Yuh (2018) (32) contrasted 34,266 deaths with the levels of calcium and magnesium in the drinking water of the subjects; even though calcium did not reduce the death rate, there was "a significant protective effect of magnesium intake from drinking water on the risk of cerebrovascular disease."

Most of us get a large share of magnesium through our food and a smaller share through our drinking water. The recommended daily amount is 6 mg/kg per day, but the magnesium in water is more easily absorbed by the body than the magnesium in food (33).

Calcium

In some areas, high-calcium water is an important dietary source of calcium. It is a natural form of calcium supplementation. Costi (1999) (34) reported that this type of water improved the average spine bone density in women.

A group of 4,434 women over 75 years old, who added an extra 100 mg/day of calcium through their drinking water increased femoral bone density by 0.5% (Aptel, 1999) (35).

Sparkling Bottled Water

There is some concern that natural or artificial carbonated water (sparkling) may erode teeth enamel, but this type of water is safe when compared to other carbonated beverages that contain added acids.

Closing Comments

Tap water is cheap and safe, chlorination may be a cause of concern due to the studies that link it to bladder cancer in men. But this evidence needs to be ratified by further research.

Bottled water is costly, has an environmental impact, and is mostly (at least in the US, bottled tap water). It contains chemicals and microplastics involving health risks.

Subjective factors play an important role in what type of water people drink: strong taste, opposition to fluoridation, and fear of bacterial contamination in tap water prompt consumers to adopt the more expensive and better marketed bottled water.

References and Further Reading

(1) Rachel Arthur, (2018). ’Bottled water is America’s favorite drink!’ Bottled water takes top spot in US. 01-Jun-2018

(2) Susan J. Masten, Simon H. Davies, and Shawn P. Mcelmurry, (2017). Flint Water Crisis: What Happened and Why?. J Am Water Works Assoc. 2016 Dec; 108(12): 22-34.DOI: 10.5942/jawwa.2016.108.019

(3) Hu Z, Morton LW, Mahler RL, (2011). Bottled water: United States consumers and their perceptions of water quality. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2011 Feb;8(2):565-78. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph8020565

(4) Doria, M. F., Pidgeon, N. and Hunter, P. R., (2009). Perceptions of drinking water quality and risk and its effect on behaviour: a cross-national study. Science of the Total Environment 407 (21), 5455-5464

(5) Levêque, J. G. & Burns, R. C., (2017). Predicting water filter and bottled water use in Appalachia: a community-scale case study. Journal of Water and Health 15 (3), 451-461

(6) CDC. Public Water Sytems. Last reviewed: March 30, 2021
(6a) CDC. Summary Reports of Waterborne Outbreaks. Last Reviewed: October 6, 2022

(7) Maura Allaire, Haowei Wu, and Upmanu Lall, (2018). National trends in drinking water quality violations. National Academy of Sciences, February 7, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719805115

(8) Food & Water Watch, Take Back the Tap The Big Business Hustle of Bottled Water.

(9) Jessica D. Forbes et al., (2016). Microbiome profiling of drinking water in relation to incidence of inflammatory bowel disease. Canadian Journal of Microbiology, 2016, 62:781-793, https://doi.org/10.1139/cjm-2016-0219

(10) Raj SD, (2005). Bottled water: how safe is it?. Water Environ Res. 2005 Nov-Dec;77(7):3013-8

(11) Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 retrieved 06.09.18

(12) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), (1991). Chlorinated Drinking-Water. Summaries & Evaluations (Group 3) VOL.: 52 (1991) (p. 45)

(13) C Villanueva, S Cordier, L Font-Ribera, L Salas, and P Levallois, (2019). Overview of Disinfection By-products and Associated Health Effects. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2015 Mar;2(1):107-15. DOI: 10.1007/s40572-014-0032-x.

(14) Evlampidou I et al., (2020) Trihalomethanes in Drinking Water and Bladder Cancer Burden in the European Union. Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 128:1. 15 Jan. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4495

(15) CDC, (2017). Over 70 Years of Community Water Fluoridation. last updated: May 4, 2017

(16) Knox MC, Garner A, Dyason A, Pearson T, Pit SW, (2017). Qualitative investigation of the reasons behind opposition to water fluoridation in regional NSW, Australia. Public Health Res Pract. 2017 Feb 15;27(1). pii: 2711705. DOI: 10.17061/phrp2711705

(17) Bucher J. et al., (1991). Results and conclusions of the national toxicology program's rodent carcinogenicity studies with sodium fluoride. Vol 48:5 International Journal of Cancer, 733-737. 9 July 1991

(18) Cristina Bach, Xavier Dauchy, Marie-Christine Chagnon, and Serge Etienne, (2012). Chemical migration in drinking water stored in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles: a source of controversy. Water Research, IWA Publishing, 2012, 46 (3), 571-583. 10.1016/j.watres.2011.11.062

(19) Helmut K. Seitz and Felix Sticke, (2009). Acetaldehyde as an underestimated risk factor for cancer development: role of genetics in ethanol metabolism. Genes Nutr. 2010 Jun; 5(2): 121-128. Published online 2009 Oct 22. DOI:10.1007/s12263-009-0154-1

(20) William Shotyk and Michael Krachler, (2007). Contamination of Bottled Waters with Antimony Leaching from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Increases upon Storage. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2007, 41 (5), 1560-1563 DOI: 10.1021/es061511+

(21) Westerhoff P, Prapaipong P, Shock E, Hillaireau A., (2008). Antimony leaching from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic used for bottled drinking water. Water Res. 2008 Feb;42(3):551-6. Epub 2007 Aug 6

(22) Leonard Sax, (2010). Polyethylene Terephthalate May Yield Endocrine Disruptors. Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Apr; 118(4): 445-448. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.0901253

(23) Suck-Young Choe et al., (2003). Evaluation of estrogenicity of major heavy metals. Science of The Total Environment Vol 312:1-3, 1 August 2003, 15-21

(24) Chun Z. Yang et al., (2011). Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved. Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Jul 1; 119(7): 989-996. 2011 Mar 2. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1003220

(25) Report of the Berkeley Plastics Task Force. 1996

(26) Sherri A. Mason, Victoria Welch, Joseph Neratko, (2017). Synthetic polymer contamination in bottled water. State University of New York at Fredonia, Department of Geology & Environmental Sciences

(27) K Cox, G Coventon, H Davies, J Dower, F Juanes, and S Dudas, (2019). Human Consumption of Microplastics. Environmental Science & Technology 2019 53 (12), 7068-7074. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b01517

(28) 2016 United States National Postconsumer Plastic Bottle Recycling Report. The Association of Plastic Recyclers and American Chemistry Council

(29) Gleick, P.H, and Cooley, H.S. (2009). Energy implications of bottled water. Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009) 014009 (6pp)

(30) Arik Azoulay, Philippe Garzon, and Mark J Eisenberg, (2001). Comparison of the Mineral Content of Tap Water and Bottled Waters. J Gen Intern Med. 2001 Mar; 16(3): 168-175. DOI: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2001.04189.x

(31) Jiang L et al. (2016). Magnesium Levels in Drinking Water and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2016 Jan 2;8(1)

(32) Chun-Yuh Yang, (2018). Calcium and Magnesium in Drinking Water and Risk of Death From Cerebrovascular Disease. Stroke. 2018; 29:411-414 https://doi.org/10.1161/str.29.2.411

(33) Durlach J., (1989). Recommended dietary amounts of magnesium: Mg RDA. Magnes Res.1989;2:3:195-203

(34) Costi D. et al., (1999). Importance of bioavailable calcium drinking water for the maintenance of bone mass in post-menopausal women. J Endocrinol Invest. 1999 Dec;22(11):852-6

(35) Aptel I, Cance-Rouzaud A, Grandjean H, (1999). Association between calcium ingested from drinking water and femoral bone density in elderly women: evidence from the EPIDOS cohort. J Bone Miner Res. 1999 May;14(5):829-33

About this Article

Tap or Bottled Water, Which is Better?, A. Whittall

©2023 Fit-and-Well.com, 02 Sept. 2023. Update scheduled for 02 Sept. 2025. https://www.fit-and-well.com/health/tap-or-bottled-water.html

Tags: mineral water, bottled water, tap water, water

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Our mission: Educate and inspire with reflective evidence-based reasoning. Information and News that you can trust.

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