Comparison of the mineral content of tap water and bottled waters

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Because of growing concern that constituents of drinking water may have adverse health effects, consumption of tap water in North America has decreased and consumption of bottled water has increased. Our objectives were to 1) determine whether North American tap water contains clinically important levels of calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), and sodium (Na+) and 2) determine whether differences in mineral content of tap water and commercially available bottled waters are clinically important. DESIGN: We obtained mineral analysis reports from municipal water authorities of 21 major North American cities. Mineral content of tap water was compared with published data regarding commercially available bottled waters and with dietary reference intakes (DRIs). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Mineral levels varied among tap water sources in North America and among bottled waters. European bottled waters generally contained higher mineral levels than North American tap water sources and North American bottled waters. For half of the tap water sources we examined, adults may fulfill between 8% and 16% of their Ca2+ DRI and between 6% and 31% of their Mg2+ DRI by drinking 2 liters per day. One liter of most moderate mineralization European bottled waters contained between 20% and 58% of the Ca2+ DRI and between 16% and 41% of the Mg2+ DRI in adults. High mineralization bottled waters often contained up to half of the maximum recommended daily intake of Na+. CONCLUSION: Drinking water sources available to North Americans may contain high levels of Ca2+, Mg2+, and Na+ and may provide clinically important portions of the recommended dietary intake of these minerals. Physicians should encourage patients to check the mineral content of their drinking water, whether tap or bottled, and choose water most appropriate for their needs.

Evaluation of the minerals, heavy metals and microbial compositions of drinking water from different sourcesin Utagba-Uno, Nigeria

“…The bottled water (BW) and tap water (TW) samples which were the popular sources of drinking water in the community had low Ca and Na contents. This is comparable with the study of Azoulay et al (2001), where the bottled water consumed by North Americans had insufficient quantities of Ca and Mg and too much Na. The mineral content of the TW sample in this study was lower than the BW sample.…”

“…The mineral content of the TW sample in this study was lower than the BW sample. The recommended dietary intakes of Ca (1000 mg/day), Na (500 mg/day) and Mg (420 mg/day) (DRIS, 1997) are best filled by consumption of foods in which these minerals are abundant and bioavailable (Azoulay et al, 2001).…”

“…Author(s) agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License water microbiology is largely based on the need to identify indicators of feacal pollution such as coliforms and Escherichia coli (Barrell et al, 2000).Since water borne minerals are in ionic form and are easily absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, it has been suggested that drinking water may be an important source of mineral intake (Azoulay et al, 2001). The shift in consumption from tap water to bottled water may therefore have implications for health and disease (Kawther and Alwakeel, 2007).…”

Do Online Comments Affect Environmental Management? Identifying Factors Related to Environmental Management and Sustainability of Hotels

“…Furthermore, Londoño and Hernandez-Maskivker [27] applied sentiment analysis to TripAdvisor comments to identify practices related to environmental sustainability [54][55][56]. On the other hand, García et al (2012) [16] used a questionnaire to obtain information on the most important indicators that improve the management of environmental aspects by hotels [57][58][59][60].…”

The Effects of Sample Matrices on Immunoassays to Detect Microcystin-LR in Water

“…The upper level of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ in drinking water is 250 μg/mL and the mid-low range is 50 μg/mL [10]. For total humic and fulvic acids, the final concentrations were from 1 up to 50 μg/mL.…”