Many people spend the extra money on bottled water for
the added security of it being safer than tap water. This is true
for most of the popular brands of bottled water purchased in the U. S..
Treatment Processes:
Filtration: The most
common type of treatment that is done on all bottled water is filtration.
This process is used to separate all large particals that may be found
in the source water. Sediments that are picked up during collection
of the water at springs, wells, or resevoirs must be eliminated in
this first step.
Distillation: This
is a process by which the water is cyclically evaporated and condensed.
This removes dissolved solids from the water which may be harmful.
The amount of dissolved solids removed depends on how many cycles the water
is put through.
Deionization: This
process removes all ions from the water, and is more economical to perform
than distillation. The water is passed over a bed of resins which
removes all anions and cations by ion exchange.
Reverse Osmosis: Many bottled
waters that come from municipal sources undergo treatment by reverse osmosis.
The water is passed through a plastic membrane by a pressure gradient.
This process separates most minerals and impurites from the water that
is pure.
Ultraviolet light: Many
bottled waters are treated with ultraviolet light. It has been proven
to be an effective way of removing any biological contaminants, such as
crytosporidium, that may be present in the water.