Iranian Journal of

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Background and Objectives: Bottled water is a main beverage at many developed and developing countries. It can be polluted with chemical agents. One of these agents is nitrate which affects the safety of bottled and mineral water and cause healthy effects on consumer health. Today&aposs consumption of bottled water get a grate develop, thus infer of the quality of this matter is compulsive for each consumer.
Materials and Methods: A descriptive-analytical and cross- sectional study was done with the aim of determination of nitrate in bottled water available in market of Tehran City in 2007. In this study, 18 samples of six various manufacturers of product were examined.
Results: Results showed that the mean of nitrate is 9.02 mg/L and all samples have nitrate bellow 50 mg/L and they are at the standard level. Also, the results of the examinations have good correspondence with the concentration of nitrate on bottled water labels and according to statistic meaningful relation, was considered.
Conclusion: The nitrate content of these bottled water available in market of Tehran city is located at the level of national and global standards and it can not be a serious problem for health of consumer.

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MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background and Objectives: Heavy metals including antimony and cobalt as two contaminant factors leach from polyethylene terephthalate packages into water under some conditions. Therefore, their detection was concerned at different storage conditions.
Materials and Methods: Five time-temperature treatments were carried out for 5 water samples. Storage conditions were defined as following: at outdoor and sunlight ambient temperature, room temperature, and at 40˚C at different intervals for 8 weeks, at 65˚C for 6 weeks and 80˚C for 7 days. Detection was performed by ICP-AES method and the data analysis was processed by SPSS software.
Results: Antimony concentration increased by storage time at all temperatures and for all samples, however enhancing proportion was different in samples. At outdoor, 40˚C and room temperature, concentration increase was below the MCL by the end of storage period. But at 65˚C and 85˚C, antimony concentration exceeded MCL by study time and the difference between samples 4 and 5, for example, was significant (p≤0.05). Cobalt concentration at the beginning and during the study was also too less and lower than the detection limit.
Conclusion: By increasing temperature and time, leaching of antimony into water increases. Moreover, sunlight has effect but not noticeable at the temperature of present study. In this study, blue or clear packaging had no significant effect on antimony leakage (P>0.05).

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Background and Objectives: Water is essential for sustaining life & adequate safe supplies must be accessible to the public. Nowadays, people prefer to purchase bottled water for reasons including taste, convenience, following fashion, and its safety and sanitary conditions. According to the WHO guideline, it is of great importance to control the bottled water because of keeping it for longer period of time and at higher temperature in comparison with the water of distribution networks, reusing containers and bottles without adequate washing and disinfecting, and more growth of microorganisms having less important in the terms of health. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial and physicochemical quality of bottled water in the stores of Qazvin City and to compare the aforesaid features with national standards and to check the quality with the bottles label.
 Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 51 samples of 11 bottled water brands with different production date were obtained. The features were studied in accordance with Standard Methods. Then, the data were analyzed by T-Test and one way ANOVA analysis using SPSS software. Eventually, the results were compared with the national standards, the WHO guidelines, and the product labels.
Results: Results showed lack of microbial contamination of the samples. Physically and chemically, all the parameters measured were below the national standards level. Study of conformity of the variables to the label indicated that mostly there was a significant difference between the values measured and the values listed on the product labels. Conclusion: Although the concentration of microbial, physical and chemical features of samples were in the extent of national standards, there was a meaningful difference between labels and measured values so that the average concentration of TDS, TH, SO4-2, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Na+ would be more than the label values and the average of the other parameters was lower than the label values.

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Background and Objective: Exposure to chemicals such as heavy metals can be occurred through the route of drinking water consumption. Chromium is an important pollutant because of its role in the appearance of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health effects in humans. In this study, we studied the carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic hazard of chromium due to the consumption of bottled drinking water distributed throughout Iran.

Materials and Methods: The Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) indices were calculated. Monte-Carlo simulation technique was adopted for simulating  uncertainty in the estimation of HQ and ELCR based on the input variables namely the concentration of pollutant, per capita water consumption, body weight, reference dose, biological availability, and source contribution factors. 

Results: The average concentration of chromium in bottled waters determined was 4.79 ± 2.32 µg/L. The amounts of HQ and ELCR  for the age groups of  lower than  2, 2 to 6, 6 to 16 and over 16 years old were 0.000354, 0.00292, 0.00236, 0.00147 and 4.04×10^-11, 5.99×10^-10, 8.61×10^-10 and 2.34×10^-9, respectively.

Conclusion: In regard to the concentration of chromium in bottled waters in Iran, the incidence probability and the possibility of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects by this pollutant due to the consumption of bottled water are considerably low and there is no health concern for any age groups.

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Background and Objective: Bottled water consumption is rapidly increasing in recent years for various reasons.The main aim of this study was to survey the geological origin of Iranian bottled water and determine compliance or lack of compliance with the experimental data obtained through sampling 71 brands of drinking bottled water and mineral water.

Materials and Methods: In this study the coordinates of access points as a georef of the chosen points were launched on the "Iran geological map" and "Iran mineral and warm water map." The compliance of laboratory data and water types with the geological data were evaluated and compared with the important ionic ratios of the extracted water through using awh software.

Results: In examining 71 brands of the bottled water, 28% of the brands did not agree with the laboratory results, reflected by observing higher levels of bicarbonate in 50% of the bottled waters than those of the geological data.. Additionally, 70% of water types were calcic bicarbonate. In the bottled waters from North Alborz range with coastal Time deposits around the Caspian Sea, there was a source of brine or sea water that was about 55% of this amount.

Conclusion: Water pass through different geological structures and the dissolution phenomenon might be an important factor for the observed disagreement. Because chemical treatment and use of additives on mineral waters are not allowed it prompts further studies to determine the cause and origin of this issue through sampling from the factory and water source.

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