Bottled drinking water: Water contamination from bottle materials (glass,hard PET,soft PET), the influence of colour and acidification

A test comparing concentrations of 57 chemical elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Dy, Er, Eu, Fe, Ga, Gd, Ge, Hf, Ho, I, K, La, Li, Lu, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Nd, Ni, Pb, Pr, Rb, Sb, Se, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Tb, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, Tm, U, V, W, Y, Yb, Zn and Zr) determined by inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometry (ICP-QMS) in 294 samples of the same bottled water (predominantly mineral water) sold in the European Union in glass and PET bottles demonstrates significant (Wilcoxon rank sum test, α = 0.05) differences in median concentrations for Sb, Ce, Pb, Al, Zr, Ti, Th, La, Pr, Fe, Zn, Nd, Sn, Cr, Tb, Er, Gd, Bi, Sm, Y, Lu, Dy, Yb, Tm, Nb and Cu. Antimony has a 21× higher median value in bottled water when sold in PET bottles (0.33 vs. 0.016 μg/L). Glass contaminates the water with Ce (19× higher than in PET bottles), Pb (14×), Al (7×), Zr (7×), Ti, Th (5×), La (5×), Pr, Fe, Zn, Nd, Sn, Cr, Tb (2×), Er, Gd, Bi, Sm, Y, Lu, Yb, Tm, Nb and Cu (1.4×). Testing an additional 136 bottles of the same water sold in green and clear glass bottles demonstrates an important influence of colour, the water sold in green glass shows significantly higher concentrations in Cr (7.3×, 1.0 vs. 0.14 μg/L), Th (1.9×), La, Zr, Nd, Ce (1.6×), Pr, Nb, Ti, Fe (1.3×), Co (1.3×) and Er (1.1×).