In Europe ca. 1900 mineral water brandsare officially registered and bottled for drinking.
Bottled waters isgroundwater and is in large parts of the continent rapidly developing into
themain supply of drinking water for the general population.This book is the first state of the
art overview of the chemistry ofgroundwaters from 40 European countries from Portugal to Russia
measured on1785 bottled water samples equivalent to 1189 distinct bottled water brandsfrom
1247 wells in 884 locations plus an additional 500 tap water samplesacquired in 2008 by the
network of EuroGeoSurveys experts all across Europe.In contrast to previously available
compilations all chemical data (containedon the enclosed CD) were measured in a single
laboratory under strict qualitycontrol with high internal and external reproducibility
affording a singlehigh quality internally consistent dataset. More than 70 parameters
weredetermined on every sample using state of the art analytical techniques withultra low
detection limits (ICPMS ICPOES IC) at a single hydrochemical labfacility. Because of the wide
geographical distributionof the water sources across 40 European countries the bottled mineral
drinking and tap waters characterized herein may be used for obtaining a firstestimate of
ground- water geochemistry at the scale of the EuropeanContinent previously unavailable in
this completeness quality and coverage.The data published here allow for the first time to
present a comprehensiveinternally consistent overview of the natural distribution and
variation ofthe determined chemical elements and additional state parameters of groundwaterat
the European scale. Most elements show a very widerange usually 3 to 4 but up to 7 orders of
magnitude of natural variation of their concentration. Data are interpreted in terms of their
origin considering hydrochemical parameters such as the influence of soil vegetation cover
and mixing with deep waters as well as other factors (bottling effects leaching from bottles).
A chapter is devoted to comparing the results from the bottled waters with those of European
tap waters and previously published datasets. The authors also provide an overview of the legal
framework that any bottled water sold in the European Union must comply with. It provides a
comprehensive compilation of current drinking water action levels in European countries
limiting values of the European Drinking Mineral Natural Mineral Water directives (1998 83 EC
2003 40 EC 2009 54 EC) and legislation in effect in 26 individual European Countries and for
comparison those of the FAO and in effect in the US (EPA maximum contaminant levels [MCA]).
The accompanying CD contains the extensive data sets sample data (of 1189 different brands)
and two previously published European water chemistry data sets.
