title: Quality assessment of various bottled waters marketed in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: This study focuses on the chemical analysis of the available brands of domestic bottled water in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. The distribution of the chemical constituents (major, minor, and trace elements) is determined and compared with the chemical content labeled on the bottles and with drinking water standards of Saudi Arabian, World Health Organization, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The obtained results indicated that except for fluoride and bromate, the concentrations of dissolved salts, soluble cations and anions, nitrate, and trace elements of most bottled waters on sale were within the permissible limits set by standards used. On the other hand, the comparison between determined and reported label values recorded a substantial variation in some parameter values. Results indicated that more than 18 % of the sampled bottled waters exceeded the allowable limits for drinking water. Generated Piper diagrams revealed that the majority of investigated waters were sodium chloride-sulfate type; however, the hydrochemical modeling indicated that all water samples were undersaturated for anhydrite, gypsum, and halite.
authors.affiliation: Soil Science Department, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. rasoul@ksu.edu.sa
authors.forename: Abdulrasoul M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Al-Omran
authors.forename: Salem E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: El-Maghraby
authors.forename: Anwar A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Aly
authors.forename: Mohammed I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Al-Wabel
authors.forename: Zafer A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Al-Asmari
authors.forename: Mahmoud E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Nadeem
mesh_terms: D060766:Drinking Water / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D060753:Water Quality / Q000592:standards*; D014881:Water Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical