Only 3 Get Top Marks for Transparency in New Bottled Water Study

A new study out about bottled water says we might not know what we are drinking. FOX 2's Deena Centofanti got some answers from one of the leading environmental doctors.

Where does that bottled water come from? A mountain stream? A natural spring? A glorified faucet? A new report by the Washington-based Environmental Working Group says it is hard to know.

"The Environmental Working Group is a pretty reputable organization. They're usually two steps ahead of the public health agencies and five steps ahead of the federal government," said Michael Harbut, M.D., an environmental cancer expert with the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

The EWG looked at more than 170 brands of bottled water to find out where the water comes from, how it is purified and the results of purity testing. Only three brands earned top marks for transparency. They were Gerber Pure Purified, Nestle Pure Life Purified and Pentra Ultra-Purified water.

The other 170 brands were missing all or some of that information. That means you might not know what you are drinking.

"It's a pretty significant study in that bottled waters are so popular and so convenient and advertised and marketed so aggressively," Harbut said.

He said the bigger problem is no one knows what harm will come from drinking contaminated water no matter what the source.

"(It) is true that some of the toxins in public water and in bottled water are very harmful. The question is how much does it take to make you sick," said Harbut.

The International Bottled Water Association is fighting back and points out there are no violations of federal labeling laws, but if the label does not tell you exactly what you are drinking what should you do?

Dr. Harbut said filter tap is a good option. He also mentioned another alternative.

"We drink distilled water. Distilled water is plain old H2O," he said.

Click here to read the complete Environmental Working Group study.