How Pure is Bottled Water?

This topic submitted by Lauren Schone, Bryan Galli, Carrie Myers, Joey Robbins ( emmers94@aol.com ) on 2/14/02 .

I. Introduction

Purpose/ Problem
Today people are very concerned with what is healthy, and right now bottled water is a product that people are convinced is the healthiest water to drink. In fact, bottled water slaes have tripled in the past ten years. However, bottled water is not as pure as it is described to be. The public is unaware of the fact that one quarter of the bottled water that they buy is really just bottled water from a tap. Also, most bottled waters are not as pure as tap water because the Food and Drug Administration is not as rigorous with its testing of bottled water as it is with its tap water testing. Some companies are allowed to call their water "spring water" even when it is brought to the surface using a pumped well and treated with chemicals.

Team "Bottled Water" Goals:
After doing research on the purity of bottled water we have discovered that most bottled waters are not as pure as the public expects them to be. We want to find out through testing different bottled water brands which bottled waters contain the least chemicals, bacteria, fecal coliform, and other contaminants so that we know and can advocate which waters are the best to buy and which brands are lying about their purity.

Why Are We Interested in Bottled Water?
Team "Bottled Water" is interested in the purity of bottled water because we want to know if consumers are wasting their money buying expensive water when they could get it from water fountains and from their kitchen sinks.

II. Relevance

What Have Others Done?
As far as we know, other students at Miami University have not yet done a study on the purity of bottled water. We did discover, however, that there are many companies and organizations, for example NRDC's four-year scientific study, all over the world which have done studies which are posted online, in magazines, and published in books on clean and safe bottled water is.

III. Experiment

Experimental Design
Team "Bottled Water" plans to test three different brands of water, Aquafina, Poland Spring, and Sam's Choice, which we have found to be popular and accessible to students on Miami University's campus. Our plan is to purchase these waters and then use the science center's water testing kit to test for impurities and contaminants in each brand of water. Then we will freeze a sample of the water, thaw it and test it to see if the chemical composition is the same after the water is frozen or if it changes to be more or less pure.

Our final part of the experiment is going to be a taste test where we will have our classmates sample all three brands of water and tell us which one is their favorite. We will then look at our purity findings and the class taste-test results to see if the class's likes and dislikes correspond in any way to the purity of the water.

Materials
2 bottles of Aquafina Water
2 bottles of Poland Spring Water
2 bottles of Sam's Choice Water
water testing kit
classmates
freezer
cups

Time Line
Team "Bottled Water" plans to obtain the three brands of water in the next few weeks and then test the water before and after we freeze it. We will then have our classmates do taste tests and finally we will compare our data to see what correlations we can find.

Bibliography

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