Geochemistry of European Bottled Water

Book excerpt: In Europe, ca. 1900 "mineral water" brandsare officially registered and bottled for drinking. Bottled waters isgroundwater and is in large parts of the continent rapidly developing into themain supply of drinking water for the general population.This book is the first state of the art overview of the chemistry ofgroundwaters from 40 European countries from Portugal to Russia, measured on1785 bottled water samples, equivalent to 1189 distinct bottled water brandsfrom 1247 wells in 884 locations plus an additional 500 tap water samplesacquired in 2008 by the network of EuroGeoSurveys experts all across Europe.In contrast to previously available compilations, all chemical data (containedon the enclosed CD) were measured in a single laboratory, under strict qualitycontrol with high internal and external reproducibility, affording a singlehigh quality, internally consistent dataset. More than 70 parameters weredetermined on every sample using state of the art analytical techniques withultra low detection limits (ICPMS, ICPOES, IC) at a single hydrochemical labfacility. Because of the wide geographical distributionof the water sources across 40 European countries, the bottled mineral,drinking and tap waters characterized herein may be used for obtaining a firstestimate of "ground- water geochemistry" at the scale of the EuropeanContinent, previously unavailable in this completeness, quality and coverage.The data published here allow for the first time to present a comprehensiveinternally consistent, overview of the natural distribution and variation ofthe determined chemical elements and additional state parameters of groundwaterat the European scale. Most elements show a very widerange, usually 3 to 4 but up to 7 orders of magnitude, of natural variation of their concentration. Data are interpreted in terms of their origin, considering hydrochemical parameters, such as the influence of soil, vegetation cover and mixing with deep waters, as well as other factors (bottling effects, leaching from bottles). A chapter is devoted to comparing the results from the bottled waters with those of European tap waters and previously published datasets. The authors also provide an overview of the legal framework, that any bottled water sold in the European Union must comply with. It provides a comprehensive compilation of current drinking water action levels in European countries, limiting values of the European Drinking/Mineral/Natural Mineral Water directives (1998/83/EC, 2003/40/EC, 2009/54/EC) and legislation in effect in 26 individual European Countries, and for comparison those of the FAO and in effect in the US (EPA, maximum contaminant levels [MCA]). The accompanying CD contains the extensive data sets, sample data (of 1189 different brands) and two previously published European water chemistry data sets.