Evaluation of Heavy Metals Content in Local and Imported Bottled Drinking Water

Abstract

Bottled drinking water may subject to physical, chemical and biological contamination due to water resources, technical process, storage and marketing facilities. Heavy metals seem to be the most important pollutants of bottled drinking water for various reasons and these metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, and others may have several public health impacts. The current study was designed to assess the bottled water content of several heavy metals such as Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in 38 samples of local and imported bottled drinking water. Also other parameters such as pH, EC were examined. A total of 38 trade mark bottled drinking water of both locally produced and imported samples were collected from different Iraqi towns for the period November 2010 and June 2011. The results of all examined variables were within Iraqi standard of drinking water except for Mn, Pb, and Zn where they found in some local bottled water samples higher than those of Iraqi standard. Also some imported samples had Pb content greater than that of Iraqi standard. However, further chemical and biological tests were needed.

Keywords

• bottled drinking water
• heavy metals
• contamination
• local
• imported
• iraqi standard