Not Safer or Cleaner
Don’t take it for granted that your bottled water is safer, cleaner or purer than water from your tap. The Food and Water Watch Organization, a nonprofit consumer rights organization based in Washington D.C., reports, “Bottled water generally is no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water.”
Standards
The stricter standards for tap water are due to the monitoring efforts of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the direction of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The considerably weaker testing and monitoring standards that apply to bottled water are controlled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the direction of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.