Myth 1 - Spring water is the subject of many popular misconceptions. For example, many people believe spring water is actually "pure" water. On the contrary, spring waters contain many of the same impurities and contaminants found in drilled wells or even tap water. Water purity is often represented numerically by "Total Dissolved Solids," or TDS, which measures the concentration of soluble impurities in pure H2O. On average, the purity of spring water is roughly comparable to tap water on a TDS basis.

How, then, can spring water bottlers advertise their product as "100% pure" spring water? As it turns out, the term "100% pure" refers not to the lack of impurities in the water, but to the source of the water. That is, 100% of the water in the bottle came from an underground source rather than a surface water source. These cleverly worded claims may be legally permissible, but many people find them misleading, to say the least.

Myth 2 - "Natural" - Another adjective which seems to pop up frequently in spring water advertising is "natural." While this term may conjure up images of a pristine wilderness setting, the fact is that "natural" could mean just about anything. This vague term even applies to tap water, since tap water is ultimately derived from a "natural" source. Come to think of it, what's an "unnatural" water?

Myth 3 - "Protected source" is yet another spring water sales claim that can be easily misinterpreted. When most people hear this term, the common image is a remote mountain spring, miles from the nearest civilization. The reality is more likely to be a locally drilled well and pumping station surrounded by a chain link fence. Hence, the "protected" source!

Myth 4 - It's also worth looking at spring water bottling practices. Most spring waters are not bottled at the source. Instead, the product is pumped into large tanker trucks for transportation to a bottling facility at another location. While the water is in the tanker truck, health regulations actually require the water to be chlorinated, exactly as municipal tap water supplies are chlorinated, as a protection against bacterial contamination.

At this point, these spring waters are virtually indistinguishable from tap water. Once the water reaches the bottling facility, a carbon filtering process is typically used to remove chlorine before bottling. However, most other impurities remain in the water. By no means could this water be considered "pure."

Myth 5 - Mineral waters are also subject to many of the same misconceptions as spring waters. However, in some cases the marketing of these products can be even more misleading. The term "mineral water" logically seems to suggest that the product contains large amounts of beneficial minerals. In reality, a review of the actual amounts present shows that the quantities of things like calcium and magnesium are typically quite small - in most cases less than 1% of the Recommended Daily Allowance per serving.