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By Rob Waters
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bottled water sold in markets and convenience stores may be no more free of pollutants than the water that pours from the kitchen tap at a fraction of the cost, said an environmental group that tested samples.
Ten top-selling brands of bottled water contained a total of 38 pollutants including fertilizer, industrial chemicals, bacteria and the residue of drugs such as Tylenol, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group based in Washington, D.C. The bottled water showed an average of eight pollutants in each sample.
Americans drank more than twice as much bottled water in 2007 as they did in 1997, guzzling 8.8 billion gallons at a cost of $10.3 billion in 2007, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp., a research and consulting firm based in New York. Although commercials often show pristine mountain springs, the reality is that bottled water often comes from city water supplies, said Renee Sharp, an Environmental Working Group senior scientist.
"If you're going to pay 1,500 times more for bottled water than for tap you'd expect that you'd be getting a cleaner, better product,'' said Sharp. ``And that's not necessarily true.''
Public water utilities are required to inform customers about contaminants that may be present in tap water and, in most states, to tell customers where the water comes from and how it's purified. Companies selling bottled water have few similar rules, Sharp said.
California, which has stricter standards than most states, requires companies to disclose whether bottled water comes from municipal water systems and also to warn consumers about contaminants that may pose health risks.
No Assurances
"But even in California, consumers still can't be assured they're getting a better product'' than they could get from their kitchen sink, Sharp said.
Sharp and her colleagues started their research by buying samples of 10 different brands and sending them to an independent laboratory for testing. They noticed that bottles from Wal-Mart's and Giant Food Inc., seemed to bear the chemical signature of standard municipal water treatment, Sharp said.
In three samples of Sam's Choice purified drinking water sold at Wal-Mart stores near San Francisco, levels of a group of chemicals known as trihalomethanes exceeded state standards, the report said. These are byproducts of chlorine and other chemicals used to kill microbes and can cause cancer at high doses.
Quality is `Top Priority'
Tests conducted by Wal-Mart and its suppliers don't show "any reportable amounts of chlorine or chlorine by-products,'' Shannon Frederick, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said yesterday in an e-mail.
"The suppliers of Sam's Choice water regularly test to verify compliance and quality,'' she said. "Product quality is a top priority at Wal-Mart, and we stand behind the quality of our bottled water.''
Giant Food spokesman Jamie Miller said in an e-mail today the water marketed by the company is produced with ``numerous safety and quality assurance controls, including a filtration process that assures that the quality of the product meets all regulatory standards for safe drinking water in the areas where we operate.''
While Sharp and her colleagues tested eight bottled water brands in addition to those of Wal-Mart and Giant, the report didn't name the others.
The largest producer of bottled water in the U.S., Nestle Waters North America, a unit of Switzerland-based Nestle, SA said today in an e-mailed statement that the environmental group's report was "false and misleading'' and seeks to "undermine the integrity of bottled water.''
'Multi-step Filtration'
Water used in Nestle's brands, which include Poland Spring and San Pellegrino, are tested regularly by independent labs and undergo "multi-step filtration,'' said Heidi Paul, the unit's vice president, in the statement.
"Contrary to the EWG's attempt to equate tap water quality with bottled water, our water is held to a higher standard,'' Paul said.
The Environmental Working Group notified Wal-Mart yesterday that it intended to sue the company for violating the terms of California's Proposition 65, a measure passed by voters in 1986. The regulation requires businesses to notify consumers if products they sell contain significant amounts of chemicals known to cause harm.
Wal-Mart's Frederick said she had no comment on the possible lawsuit.
The increased consumption of water sold in disposable plastic bottles also creates serious environmental problems, Sharp said.
`Enormous Environmental Impacts'
"The environmental impacts of bottled water production are enormous in terms of the amount of energy that goes into producing the bottles and shipping them around the country,'' she said. "The bottles also clog landfill sites and increasingly pollute oceans, where they endanger marine animals."
While Giant Food's Acadia brand had similar levels of trihalomethanes, the environmental group doesn't plan to sue the chain under the California statute because it doesn't have stores in the state, Sharp said.
The environmental group wants to see stricter, nationwide standards requiring full disclosure of the contaminants in bottled water and urges consumers to switch from bottled water to tap water. People who are concerned about tap water quality can purchase home filtration systems for a small portion of the cost they pay for bottled water, Sharp said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Waters in San Francisco at rwaters5@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 15, 2008 13:36 EDT
NEW PRODUCT UPDATE: 
The close up shots of the control panel of each ionizer.
Look to ensure the highest setting is selected and that you can actually see this.
The individual flow rates on each ionizer – can you see them individually and close up?
Are all the ionizers running at the same time? If so be suspicious – it would be easy to control flow using an in-line valve. You could slow flow to one ionizer to increase results and speed up flow on another ionizer to decrease results.
White vinegar can be added to the port of an ionizer to decrease performance
Mineral additives can be introduced to increase performance
Again, who did the test? Are they credible?
Ammonia or bleach – both liquids are extremely powerful alkaline substances. Both also happen to be clear liquids. Here is a simple an powerful way in which to alter results: Take what appears to be a new cup, swirl some bleach or ammonia in it. Pour it out. Allow to dry. Now your vessel appears brand new – but will powerfully alter the results. Add water and you will have a high pH result.
White vinegar or muriatic acid – both liquids are extremely powerful acidic substances. Both are also clear liquids. Test results can be doctored to lower results using the same method but substituting an acidic. Add water and you will have a lower pH result.
Who is making the rating or video? Who actually performed the tests?
Is the person testing (and standing behind the results) credible? Can they be believed?
Would you prefer to believe a technician from an Independent EPA Certified Analytical Lab would certainly be the most trustworthy.
Lastly lets look at the motivation. Most of the current comparison sites have top ranking in the “Sponsored Links” section on GoogleTM. Why on earth would an objective review site pay GoogleTM to get to the top billing in the search engine rankings? Could it be they stand to profit? The only criteria they offer you are their homegrown video “performance tests” which attempt to appear unbiased and objective. Again, ask the salient questions. In the end you will find it is a slick, yet essentially dishonest approach to offering a comparison. It is designed to direct you to their specific brand, which of course they rank the highest. Additionally, they focus only on pH and ORP and leave out some other crucial performance considerations. In short, when you look past a clean-cut image and a smooth articulate delivery, where are the facts that you can trust?
Is the Test Independent, Third Party? You will want to know the party performing the test has no motivation for a specific outcome. Ideally a test would be performed by a company with absolutely no business ties to any brand. There are tests on the Internet that appear to be objective but in reality are not. In a few short minutes of internet searching, we found an interesting website depicting the ties of one comparison site to a specific brand. A good litmus test to apply is does the entity performing the test make income from the sale of ionizers? Can you verify this?
Is the Test Scientific? Look for good solid scientific testing using:
Top quality instruments. Measuring pH is relatively common (example: pool and fish tank maintenance) and the equipment to do it is fairly accurate and readily available. Measuring ORP is another story entirely. ORP is expressed in millivolts (1/1000 of a single volt) and measures extremely slight, and highly variable differences in the electrical properties of water. Instruments that measure ORP range in price from $100 for a handheld “tester” to over $3,000 for more sophisticated laboratory equipment. Look for the more sophisticated and expensive laboratory equipment.
Solid lab protocols and flawless execution. There are many factors which can be manipulated easily in a video. You will want verify that all possible variables that could affect the outcome of testing were strictly controlled such as settings, flow rates, age of the ionizer
IonLife, Inc. recently donated a
One of the leading water technology and water management tradeshows in Europe took place at the 
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