The chemistry of bottled mineral and spring waters from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland

Abstract

Twenty-two bottled mineral and spring waters from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland have been analysed for 71 inorganic chemical parameters with low detection limits as a subset of a large European survey of bottled groundwater chemistry (N = 884). The Nordic bottled groundwaters comprise mainly Ca–Na–HCO 3–Cl water types, but more distinct Ca–HCO 3, Na HCO 3 and Na–Cl water types are also offered. The distributions for most elements fall between groundwater from Fennoscandian Quaternary unconsolidated aquifers and groundwater from Norwegian crystalline bedrock boreholes. Treated tap waters have slightly lower median values for many parameters, but elements associated with plumbing have significantly higher concentrations in tap waters than in bottled waters. The small dataset is able to show that excessive fluoride and uranium contents are potential drinking water problems in Fennoscandia. Nitrate and arsenic displayed low to moderate concentrations, but the number of samples from Finland and Northern Sweden was too low to detect that elevated concentrations of arsenic occur in bedrock boreholes in some regions. The data shows clearly that water sold in plastic bottles is contaminated with antimony. Antimony is toxic and suspected to be carcinogenic, but the levels are well below the EU drinking water limit. The study does not provide any health-based arguments for buying bottled mineral and spring waters for those who are served with drinking water from public waterworks. Drinking water from crystalline bedrock aquifers should be analysed. In case of elevated concentrations of fluoride, uranium or arsenic, most bottled waters, but not all, will be better alternatives when treatment of the well water is not practicable.