Purified Water: A CLoser Look at Bottled Waters and Their Claims

The claims made by three bottled water manufacturers were checked through a series of tests. CHA ™ (by Abundant Life CHA ™ Water Company in Chattanooga, TN), Penta ® (by Bio-hydration Research Lab, Inc.), and Mountain Fresh superoxygenated water (Collegedale, TN) were the subject of this study. Three tests were done on these samples: pH level, dissolved oxygen, and osmosis rate test. The pH level test confirmed the claim that CHA ™ water is alkaline (pH = 9.6); the other samples tested had pH levels ranging from 6.5 to 7.6. The dissolved oxygen test compared the oxygen concentration of several water samples to that of Mountain Fresh superoxygenated water. Mountain Fresh superoxygenated water did not always give higher oxygen levels than other water samples such as tap water. On two different days the Mountain Fresh superoxygenated water purchased had levels that were less that 5% higher than tap water. On the occasions in which samples of Mountain Fresh superoxygenated water showed higher levels of oxygen, the levels of oxygen were only two times greater than tap water. The osmosis test showed that Penta ® and RO water were the fastest at diffusing through the membrane of an egg. But Penta ® and RO water were merely faster than CHA ™ and tap water. While Penta ® diffused an average of 4.03 grams of water in the first 30 minutes of the test, tap water diffused 3.6 grams of water. These tests show that perhaps the claims, with the exception of the alkalinity of CHA ™ water, made by the manufacturers have been exaggerated