Is bottled water safe? Well, the bottlers in the US though claim their products to be free from chemicals, radiation and bacteria are far clean from pharmaceutical residues.

The Food and Drug Administration, regulating the $12 billion bottled water industry in the states, which has set standards for radiation, chemicals and bacteria, has not set apart any guidelines for pharmaceutical residues. The acceptable levels of pharmaceuticals in bottled water in the US are much the same as those for tap water.

The bottlers claim the water to be coming from pure, underground rural sources. They assert their products to be safe. They claim to purify using advancement treatment methods; well obviously not for pharmaceutical residues.

Nestle Waters North America Inc., an industry leader in bottled water, said the sources that they choose were removed from human activity, which guarantees that the water will be pure. The water is then run through cleansing stages. Company’s director of Health and Environmental affairs Kevin Mathews said the multiple barrier process of the company was effective.

Though Nestle, a leader in the industry with brands like Arrowhead, Poland Springs and Ozarka, follows the set standards of purification, pharmaceutical test is not done; the test could detect even the minutest concentration of pharmaceutical presence. Mathews would not rule out the presence of pharmaceutical residues given that testing could detect the drug residues. He pointed out that no one could say that “anything is free from pharmaceuticals’’.

Meanwhile, a Vice President of the International Bottled Water Association said that the situation was being monitored. He also pointed out that the Association, which represents various brands, had not found anything alarming.

The Beverage Marketing Corporation says that the bottled water consumption had increased by 50 per cent, coming to 30 gallons per person, in the Unites States.

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