Chemicals linked to cancer discovered in both bottled and tap water
If you use bottled water to avoid chemicals from the tap, your efforts may be in vain.
A new one study has discovered that water in disposable plastic bottles contains the same disinfectants as tap water.
Researchers found bacteria, lead and disinfectant byproducts at varying concentrations in tap water, bottled water and treated home tap water from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Previous studies have shown that consuming large amounts of these pollutants can cause neurological problems, cancer and liver damage.
However, the researchers cautioned that nearly all of the water tested was still below the EPA’s federal thresholds for drinking water quality, meaning that drinking water from any of these three sources is likely safe.
Bottled water is popular in the United States, with the average American drinking 45 gallons of it per year in 2020.
Still, the research findings come amid a flurry of recent reports from the EPA on a number of pollutants in water, including microplastics, forever chemicals and arsenic.
Samantha Bear, a senior researcher at SimpleLab and lead author of the study, told DailyMail.com: ‘We were quite surprised to see that bottled water and the treated household water were not significantly different. That was really surprising. And that tap water was in a class of its own.’
Researchers analyzed drinking water from the San Francisco Bay Area, including 100 samples of bottled water, 603 samples of tap water, and 111 samples of purified household water (water that has been filtered at home with a Brita filter).
The bottles included labels such as spring water, artesian water, mineral water, well water and purified water, and were purchased in July 2022. It did not specify which water brands were purchased, but said they were representative of choices in California.
The homes tested were those that had purchased a water quality test kit from SimpleLab Inc.
They analyzed it for contaminants and the results of the research were published in the journal The Public Library for Science Water.
The team found that about 53 percent of the bottled water tested, 61 percent of the treated tap water and 98 percent of the untreated tap water was linked to at least one health problem.
The most common pollutants they found were the byproducts of chlorine used to disinfect water, called trihalomethanes.
These values were found in all three water sources, but the values were highest in tap water.
Trihalomethanes enter bottled water when it is treated with chlorine to sterilize the product or when the water source from which the company bottles the water already contains chlorine or its byproducts.
Consuming high amounts of trihalomethanes has been linked to developmental delays, reproductive problems, liver damage, and an increased risk of cancer.
That’s why the EPA has established a threshold for the amount of these chemicals that can be present in drinking water.
Eight samples of bottled water exceeded legal limits set by California, which is stricter than EPA guidelines
Ms Bear said exposure to chemicals such as disinfectant byproducts increases the risk of certain health problems, but that does not automatically mean you will be harmed if you drink them.
Climate change, aging infrastructure, and pollution all contribute to the current challenges people face securing clean drinking water, but Bear says this has mostly been studied for tap water.
In response, Americans have turned to bottled water, with the total amount they use dropping from 28 gallons per person per year in 2010 to 45 gallons per person per year in 2020.
However, Ms. Bear and her colleagues at SimpleLab, a company that sells home tests for water and soil, knew that bottled water contained the same additives as other water sources. They believed that people were basing their choice of bottled water on a lack of evidence.
“There’s an overwhelming perception that bottled water, yes, is pure. It’s sterile. It doesn’t have any bacteria in it,” Ms. Bear said. “It’s certainly generally pretty clean, but it’s not necessarily … (THE) gold standard, the best ever.”
Water boards warn The chance of coming into contact with these chemicals is greater in untreated water than in disinfected water. This is due to the natural chlorine supply in the environment.
Untreated tap water had the highest levels of contaminants linked to health risks. Bottled water and treated domestic water (the same kind you get from utilities) have about the same amount of chemicals, making them more or less equal, Ms. Bear said.
Other pollutants the researchers found in the water tested included heavy metals such as lead.
Lead enters the water supply most often through outdated pipes or infrastructure. It was found in 30 percent of treated household tap water and 51 percent of tap water samples.
Regular exposure to lead can cause neurological, developmental, learning and behavioral problems. This is most common in children.
The study was unable to look at other factors that people are concerned about, such as constant chemicals or microplastics.
Ms Bear warned that while these contaminants can cause health problems, that does not mean your drinking water is unsafe.
Even if you find that your drinking water has high levels of contaminants, you can purchase inexpensive, effective filters that will significantly reduce the risks.
“I’m a big fan of tap water. I think it’s important that we all have this information so that we can all choose what we want to drink and each do our own thing. Everyone’s risk tolerance is different,” Ms Bear told this website.
She added: “I’m glad I have the information about my water to make these choices.”