But isn't bottled water safer?

That's what I thought.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. "While most of the tested waters were found to be of high quality, some brands were contaminated: about one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination—including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic—in at least one sample that exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled water industry standards or guidelines."

In many cases, bottled water is no safer than tap water. Part of the reason is that municipal waters are under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which requires constant testing. Bottled water falls under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which requires less or no testing in some cases. For example, if bottled water is sold within the same state, no testing is required.

Some brands of bottled water are safer than others, and according to NRDC about 25 percent of the bottled water is actually tap water. "But the actual source of water is not always made clear—some bottled water marketing is misleading, implying the water comes from pristine sources when it does not. In 1995, the FDA issued labeling rules to prevent misleading claims, but while the rules do prohibit some of the most deceptive labeling practices, they have not eliminated the problem."

Click on http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp for considerable background on water safety and purity.

There are good and poor municipal water supplies just as there are good and poor bottled drinking water. Perrier/Nestle provides safe water, but occasionally reports such as these pop up:

• In the Sept. 25, 2002 issue of the Chicago Tribune ("Jewel removes water for odd taste"), staff reporter Delroy Alexander wrote that Jewel Food Stores removed thousands of bottles of Ice Mountain (a Perrier label) from its 199 stores after customers complained of a strange petroleum smell and oily taste to the water although it was determined it was not a health hazard.
  
  
• In July 1994, Ice Mountain recalled 8,899 cases of 1.5-liter bottles and 22,729 of 2.5-gallon and Deer Park (another Perrier domestic label) 12,790 cases of 1.5 liter bottles and 13,489 cases of 2.5 gallon bottles because of a strange smell and an off taste, according to FDA records.
  
  
• According to an item in North Carolina regulators in 1990 issued a report stating that Perrier's bottled water was contaminated with benzene. Perrier recalled 70 million bottles of Perrier in the United States and Canada, and then a worldwide recall when Dutch and Danish officials also found benzene.

The above are isolated examples just as there are isolated cases of tap water contamination.

Dr. Robert Ophaug, a professor of oral health at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, notes that tap water has another advantage: It typically contains fluoride. Many communities have elected to add fluoride to drinking water to promote strong teeth and prevent tooth decay in residents, though some groups continue to oppose this practice and believe it's detrimental to health.

Dr. Ophaug says "bottled water often does not have fluoride added to it. Or, if it has been purified through reverse osmosis or distillation, the fluoride may have been removed. People who drink mostly bottled water, especially those who have children, need to be aware of this..."