What’s in It Isn’t Always Clear : New rules for bottled water satisfy the thirst for more consumer information

Bottled water is as common in Southern California as this region’s trademark sunshine and traffic jams. Californians, who downed an average of 24 gallons each in 1991, are thirstier for the bottled stuff than other Americans, who drank eight gallons that year, up from four in 1984.

Many who sip their way through the workday or a workout do so because they prefer the taste of bottled water to tap or because they believe bottled water is healthier or purer. But it isn’t always.

Ever since benzene, a carcinogen, was found in bottles of Perrier in 1990--a problem quickly addressed by the company--the federal government has been under pressure to set standards for bottled water.

A 1991 report by the General Accounting Office found that the Food and Drug Administration had failed to apply to bottled water the tougher standards that the Environmental Protection Agency has for tap water. “As a result,” it said, “bottled water, including mineral water, may contain levels of potentially harmful contaminants that are not allowed in drinking water (from taps).”

So the FDA’s announcement last week that it will propose new rules for bottled water is good news. Consistent with the FDA’s recent campaign for standardization and truth in food product labeling, the rules would define terms such as spring water , artesian water and mineral water and require that labels describe them truthfully. Other rules would require that bottled water be at least the equivalent of tap water in quality.

The rules, which are expected to become final in six months, following public comment, are in most respects an improvement. But in at least one area, the definition of mineral water, the proposed federal standard would be looser--requiring fewer parts per million of dissolved minerals--than California’s existing standard. The federal definition would preempt the tougher state standard unless Sacramento’s petition to the FDA, seeking an exemption, prevails. It should.

The FDA has insisted that bottled water is safe, and independent agencies, such as Consumers Union, pretty much agree. Of more concern have been the misleading messages and the lack of information on bottle labels. The new rules should help.