Physicochemical quality and health implications of bottled water brands sold in Ethiopia Wossen T. Amogne, Melaku Gizaw and Daniel Abera Environmental Health Research Team, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Correspondence to Wossen T. Amogne, MSc, Environmental Health Research Team, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Patriots Street, PO Box 1242, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia fax: +251 112 754744; e-mail: wossentafere@gmail.com Received 17 January 2015 Accepted 15 May 2015 Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association 2015, 90:72–79 Background Water bottling companies often assert that their products are of the highest quality and are conforming to the standards. Objectives The objective of the study was to assess the physicochemical quality of bottled waters consumed in Ethiopia and to compare the findings with the national and international water quality standards. Materials and methods Eleven domestic and two imported bottled water brands were randomly purchased in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at three different occasions from July 2013 to May 2014. A total of 39 composite samples were examined for aggregate parameters, major anions, and common cations in accordance with the procedures described in the standard methods. Results We found that 7.7% of the samples were containing higher levels of alkalinity, hardness, total dissolved solids, pH, HCO 3 – , Na + , and Ca 2+ than the national standards and the WHO guidelines. However, the deviations from standards for all the above parameters were not statistically significant (one-sample t-test, P40.05). Conversely, in some of the brands, some of the essential elements like Ca 2+ ,K + , Mg 2+ , and F – were found at very low concentrations. The rest of the parameters, including CO 3 2– , SO 4 2– , PO 4 3– (orthophosphates), Cl – ,F – , NO 3 – , NO 2 – ,K + , Mg 2+ , Fe, Mn, Cr, Cd, Cu, Ni, and Pb were within the acceptable ranges in all the brands. Conclusion and recommendations Bottled water brands containing very high concentrations of dissolved substances may pose health risks for individuals living with heart and kidney related problems. On the other hand, brands having chemicals lower than the optimum level may also harm the health of consumers who choose those brands as a sole source of drinking water. Thus, we suggest those responsible authorities to ensure regular monitoring and testing for chemical compositions of bottled water. Keywords: aggregate parameters, anions, bottled water, cations, drinking water, Ethiopia, safe water, water quality standards, water quality J Egypt Public Health Assoc 90:72–79 & 2015 Egyptian Public Health Association 0013-2446 Introduction The provision of safe and sufficient drinking water is the central component of promoting public health. Its role is well-acknowledged that almost any kind of government is striving to make sure that community water supplies are wholesome and accessible. As a result, we reached a stage of economic and political development where piped drinking water can be taken for granted in much of the world – particularly in urban centers. Not only this, as time goes by, the quality of piped drinking water is also getting better and better [1,2]. Despite such marked efforts and noticeable achievements on water quality, it seems that most consumers nowadays tend to prefer bottled waters over tap water and other beverages [3]. Customers purchase bottled waters at costs three or four orders of magnitude higher than tap water – mainly due to health related concerns [4]. However, bottled water may not be superior in quality than the tap water as assumed by the majority of the customers [5–8]. As revealed by different studies on the physical and chemical quality of bottled drinking waters, some of the brands were found to contain higher contents of nitrate [9–11], chloride [11,12], fluoride [10,11], sul- fate [11], total dissolved solids (TDS) [9,12], and trace elements [9–12] than the limits set by the WHO guidelines and United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) standards. In other cases, some physicochemical parameters were found to be much lower than the required optimum value (e.g. fluor- ide) [9,13]. In addition, the figures reported on labels might not show the constituents correctly [14,15]. 72 Original article 0013-2446 & 2015 Egyptian Public Health Association DOI: 10.1097/01.EPX.0000466525.12773.22 Copyright r 2015 Egyptian Public Health Association. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.