Bottled water safety issues are getting a lot of attention in Washington right now. A congressional subcommittee yesterday held a hearing on the question.

At the hearing, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report recommending that bottled water producers be required to label their products with the same information that municipal water providers are required to disclose.

Currently, there are separate requirements for bottled water — regulated under the FDA — and municipal water, regulated under the EPA. The EPA requirements are more stringent, and require more testing.  For example, the EPA limits phthalates, a chemical used in plastics manufacture that causes cancer. The FDA does not.

In addition there are state requirements for bottled water that in some cases are more stringent than the FDA requirements, but less stringent than the EPA requirements.

The GAO surveyed consumers in all 50 states and reported that consumers are misinformed about bottled water — they often think that bottled water is safer or healthier than tap water.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog nonprofit group, also reported at the hearing. EWG said it believes consumers need more information to make good choices. Consumers should know where the water comes from, how it is treated, and what contaminants are in it, according to the EWG’s Richard Wiles.

That information is not currently on the label in many cases, although it may be available at the bottling company’s Web site, as a spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association pointed out at the hearing.

But complete disclosure is rare.  An EWG study released at the hearing checked 188 bottled water brands and found that less than 2 percent disclose all three basic facts about their water, on the label or in a Web site. Those facts are the water’s source, how it was purified, and what contaminants remain.

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