Evaluation of chemical quality in 17 brands of Iranian bottled drinking waters.

BACKGROUND The purpose of study was to evaluate and compare chemical quality of Iranian bottled drinking water reported on manufacturer's labeling and standards. METHODS This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study and done during July to December 2008. The bottled mineral water collected from shops randomly were analyzed for all parameters address on manufacturer's labeling and the results were compared with the manufacturer's labeling data, WHO Guideline Values, USEPA Maximum Contaminant Levels and the maximum contaminant levels of drinking water imposed by the Iranian legislation. Statistical analysis on data was done with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normal distribution, the paired t-test to compare the data with manufacturer's labeling and the one-sample t-test to compare with standard and MCL values at P 0.05). In addition, pH and calcium values were significantly higher than their proposed values indicated by Iranian National Legislation and international MCLs (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION Our results are extremely important for the health supervisory agencies such as Ministry of Health and Institute of Standards & Industrial Research of Iran to have more effective controls on bottled water industries, and to improve periodical the proposed standard values.