PERSONAL HEALTH : Safety of Bottled Water Is Affirmed

Ah, the irony. A North Carolina laboratory director was using Perrier water as a standard of purity to test municipal water quality when he detected traces of benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer in animals, in the bottled water, according to North Carolina Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Patty McQuillan. The director’s discovery, reported immediately to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ultimately led to a global recall of the French water--and to hasty reassurances from experts that Perrier lovers need not fear any ill effects.

But last week’s recall has left bottled water drinkers wondering: Are other brands safe? And who keeps an eye on the industry?

“Consumers--especially those in California--can rest easy,” said William Deal, executive vice president of the International Bottled Water Assn. (IBWA), an Alexandria, Va.-based trade group representing most domestic bottled water companies and many importers. California’s regulations governing bottled water processing are the most stringent in the nation, Deal said.

“In the last five years, California laws governing bottled water and water vending machines have been revised four times, “ said Jack Sheneman, a scientist with the Food and Drug Branch of the California Department of Health Services. These changes have tightened standards for maximum lead levels, among other substances, and spelled out more stringent regulations covering water haulers and others in the industry. California bottled water plants are inspected at least once a year, Sheneman said.

On the federal level, bottled water is considered a food, subject to regulation by the FDA. (Tap water comes under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency.) “FDA inspectors make regular rounds at bottling plants,” said Emil Corwin, spokesman for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Inspectors look for color, odor, clarity, chemical quality and physical plant cleanliness.”

(Traces of benzene crept into the Perrier, company officials say, because workers at the plant in France failed to change a filter.)

Bottled water labeling is strictly regulated as well. Spring water, for instance, must flow naturally to the earth from an underground formation, while purified water must be filtered and then purified by reverse osmosis or deionization. (See accompanying glossary for explanations of other bottled water labels.)

Most bottled water manufacturers belong to the IBWA, which has its own code of standards, supports federal labeling guidelines and insists on its own annual inspection of every bottling plant, which are “performed by an independent third party,” Deal said.

Consumers should put the Perrier contamination in perspective, says an Oklahoma City water expert. The traces of benzene in Perrier might have gone undetected in the past, says Charles Lawrence, vice chairman of the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

“Our analytical capability has grown so fast we can now measure substances in parts-per-billion (PPBS) and parts-per-trillion (PPT) that used to go undetected,” Lawrence said.

He doesn’t think bottled water is necessarily any safer than tap water. “But water--bottled or tap--is the safest beverage we have,” he says. “There are more carcinogens in peanut butter, coffee, tea, beer and wine.”