Tap water can be purer than bottled
April 1, 1999
BY MARSHA LOW
AND ERIN LEE MARTIN
Free Press Staff Writers
The labels promise bliss in a bottle: pure, fresh water delivered straight from a mountain stream.
But marketing is more glamorous than reality in much of the $4-billion bottled-water industry, a national research group reported this week. And Michigan is no exception.
Consider Absopure, a brand common in metro Detroit stores. The company pulls about 5 percent of its mineral water from a well between a strip mall and a gas station in Southfield.
Safe? State tests say yes. But would consumers shell out the same money if they knew?
"I'd still buy it because tap water tastes bad," said Maggie Lanzilote of Royal Oak.
Kathy Bohde, a self-proclaimed health fanatic who also lives in Royal Oak, said she would like more government oversight of water, but "People don't care anymore. They're too busy."
The Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group based in New York City, spent four years testing and tracking down the water supplies for 103 brands of bottled water. Most have good quality, but not because they're from mountain streams.
The council found that one in four brands is actually tap water. Some other brands are less pure than that -- a circumstance the council blamed on lax federal and state regulations for quality and consumer disclosure.
The council said about a third of 1,000 bottles tested contained bacteria and chemicals that could be harmful in larger amounts.
The International Bottled Water Association shot back: "For the past 37 years, there have been no confirmed reports in the U.S. of illness or disease linked to bottled water."
Evelyn DeNike, public affairs coordinator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the popularity of bottled water boils down to savvy marketing.
"There is a snob appeal that maybe you're drinking something better because it's more expensive," she said. "In most cases, the water you get from your tap is just as wholesome and healthy."
In fact, DeNike said, water from the taps of most homes in southeastern Michigan is among the purest and best-tasting. She said that water processed by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department regularly ranks among the top 10 nationally.
Tap water is cheaper, too. In Detroit, 1,000 gallons cost $1. Twenty ounces of Naya, a brand the council called pure, cost $1.
At Absopure, Metro Operations Manager William Patrick said his company's water is consistently safe. All of its spring water comes from Jackson County, and distilled water is pulled from several sources, including the tap.
"Our customers know our product is a good product ...every time they taste it," Patrick said Wednesday.
Bottled-water companies are responsible for testing water before it is packaged. The state Department of Agriculture inspects water sources at least once a year, and the FDA regulates the manufacturing of water products that cross state lines.
In 1996, the FDA also began regulating labels used on bottled water. Approved terms are artesian, distilled, ground, mineral, purified, spring, sparkling, sterile and well. Undefined terms are alpine, glacier, mountain, natural, 100 percent, organic and pure.
"You can't claim that a bottle contains artesian well water, for example, if it doesn't because that's fraud," DeNike said.
Detroit Water and Sewerage Department will sell empty bottles for water and has been discussing selling bottled water.
"We kept hearing people say, 'We should buy bottled water because it's supposed to be better,' " said Mary Mazur, department spokeswoman. "We just want to show that we can do it, too."
The NRDC report is available at http://www.nrdc.org
So what's the alternative to bottled water? Try This
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