Did you know that bottled water is about 500 times more expensive than tap water? Despite this fact, many Americans (myself included) buy billions of bottles of water every year.
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city to add fluoride to the public water supplies. Fluoride makes teeth more resistant to cavities, but with so many people turning to bottled water these days, are they still getting the benefits of fluoride?
I decided to investigate the amount of fluoride in bottled water by taking a look at 13 popular bottled water brands and finding out how much fluoride each bottled water brand contains.
I was fairly successful in finding out, except for one brand, but I should be getting something in the mail from them if things go right!
How Much Fluoride is In Bottled Water?
Many people claim that bottled water doesn’t contain any fluoride. While analyzing 13 of the more popular bottled waters in the United States, I found out that all of these bottled waters do contain some fluoride.
Here’s the results of each bottled water brand and how much fluoride it contains. You can skip down to the bottom for a summary graph.
Aquafina
Aquafina claims that their bottled water contains less than 0.05 ppm fluoride in the Aquafina Water Quality Report (PDF), however the U.S. Department of Agriculture did some testing and found the average to be .05 ppm fluoride with some bottles of Aquafina containing up to 0.09 ppm fluoride.
Arrowhead
According to the Arrowhead Quality Report (PDF), Arrowhead brand spring water contains anywhere from less than 0.1 to 1.3 ppm fluoride.
Crystal Geyser
Crystal Geyser brand Contains Anywhere from 0.088 to 0.74 ppm fluoride depending on which of their six bottling plants the spring water comes from according to the Crystal Geyser FAQ Page.
Below is a link to the bottled water quality report for all six bottling plants. Crystal Geyser appears to be the most transparent bottled water company when it comes to divulging their fluoride levels.
The Crystal Geyser Benton, Tennessee spring contains 0.088 ppm fluoride.
The Crystal Geyser Moultonborough, New Hampshire spring contains 0.16 ppm fluoride.
The Crystal Geyser Mt. Shasta, California spring contains 0.25 to 0.34 ppm fluoride.
The Crystal Geyser Norman, Arkansas spring contains 0.11 ppm fluoride.
The Crystal Geyser Olancha Peak, California spring contains 0.61 to 0.74 ppm fluoride.
The Crystal Geyser Salem, South Carolina spring contains 0.29 ppm fluoride.
Dasani
Dasani’s Water Quality Report (PDF) only states that fluoride was not detected above 0.8 ppm. Not very specific, if you ask me!
Since Dasani water is simply purified municipal water that is filtered via reverse osmosis, most of the fluoride is removed from Dasani water before the bottle makes it into your hands.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s study found that Dasani bottled water contains on average, 0.07 ppm fluoride, with values ranging anywhere from 0.02 to 0.19 ppm fluoride among the 20 Dasani water bottles that were tested.
Deer Park
Deer Park spring water contains <0.10 to 0.19 ppm fluoride according to the Deer Park Water Quality Report (PDF).
Deja Blue
Deja Blue appears to contain less than 0.10 ppm fluoride based on this report.
After one unanswered email and two calls to Dr. Pepper/Snapple (the first time they routed me to Kellog Cereals for some reason) they couldn’t tell me how much fluoride was in their water, all I got was, “I’m sorry, but we do not have that information available.”
I then asked for a bottled water quality report, and she said that she thought they could send that to me. I gave them my address and if they send it to me, I will update this section. I’m under the impression that they legally have to provide a water quality report to inquiring consumers, but I’m not a lawyer!
Evian
Evian’s Water Quality Report (PDF) states that Evian contains less than 0.10 ppm fluoride. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s study pins Evian’s fluoride content right at 0.10 ppm fluoride, with values ranging from 0.07 ppm to 0.15 ppm fluoride.
FIJI
FIJI artesian water contains 0.29 ppm fluoride according to the FIJI Water Quality Report (PDF).
Ice Mountain
Ice Mountain contains a trace amount of fluoride up to a maximum of 0.072 ppm fluoride according to the Ice Mountain Bottled Water Quality Report (PDF).
Nestle Pure Life
Contains trace amounts of fluoride up to 0.13 ppm fluoride per the Nestle Pure Life Bottled Water Quality Report (PDF).
Ozarka
Ozarka natural spring water contains 0.07 to 0.088 ppm fluoride according to the Ozarka Bottled Water Quality Report (PDF). Interestingly, they also show that their fluoridated spring water contains 0.77 ppm fluoride.
Poland Spring
Poland Spring bottled water contains 0.075 to 0.17 ppm fluoride according to the Poland Springs Water Quality Report (PDF). They also state that their fluoridated brand of spring water contains 0.86 ppm fluoride. It’s interesting that both Ozarka and Poland Spring, which are owned by Nestle, appear to add differing amounts of fluoride to their fluoridated subset of drinking waters.
Zephyrhills
Zephyrhills spring water contains 0.064 to 0.13 ppm fluoride according to the Zephyrhills Water Quality Report (PDF)
Summary of Fluoride Concentrations in Bottled Water
Here’s a summary graph showing how much fluoride is present in the various brands of bottled water.
Another note I forgot to add to the graph is that when the bottled water quality reports stated that there was an “undetected amount” or that it was “below the minimum reporting limit” I simply used 0.01 ppm fluoride in the graph above.
Bonus Fluoride Fact!
Since I love Perrier sparkling water so much, I did some research to find out how much fluoride it contains. Perrier contains 0.18 ppm fluoride according to the Perrier Water Quality Report.
Questions, Comments, and Concerns about Fluoride in Bottled Water?
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the amount of fluoride in bottled water, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below.
Also, in order to find out which bottled waters to include, I took the top 20 bottled waters worldwide, then picked out 13 that are widely sold in the United States. If you’re curious about the amount of fluoride in a different brand of bottled water, simply ask in the comments and I’ll try to find out.