In the United States, plastic bottles of the type used for commercially sold water are regulated by the FDA as "food contact substances" and held to the same safety standards as food additives.
This means, among other things, that the FDA has reviewed test data on the safety of the plastics used in water bottles -- including the potential for hazardous chemicals leaching or "migrating" from the plastic into the water -- and established that they pose no significant risk to human health. The water itself is also tested and must meet basic quality standards similar to those set by the Environmental Protection Agency for public drinking water.
That is not to say that bottled water is absolutely free of contaminants, nor that chemical leaching never takes place. Studies done on water bottled in FDA-approved polyethylene terephthalate (PET), for example, did find trace amounts of potentially hazardous substances believed to have migrated from the plastic. The important point to take away, however, is that these amounts were miniscule and well within the safety limits set by FDA and EPA regulators.
From http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/a/bottled-water.htm
In the United States, plastic bottles of the type used for commercially sold water are regulated by the FDA as "food contact substances" and held to the same safety standards as food additives.
This means, among other things, that the FDA has reviewed test data on the safety of the plastics used in water bottles -- including the potential for hazardous chemicals leaching or "migrating" from the plastic into the water -- and established that they pose no significant risk to human health. The water itself is also tested and must meet basic quality standards similar to those set by the Environmental Protection Agency for public drinking water.
That is not to say that bottled water is absolutely free of contaminants, nor that chemical leaching never takes place. Studies done on water bottled in FDA-approved polyethylene terephthalate (PET), for example, did find trace amounts of potentially hazardous substances believed to have migrated from the plastic. The important point to take away, however, is that these amounts were miniscule and well within the safety limits set by FDA and EPA regulators.