We all know that bottled water is bad for the environment, but do you know how bad it is for you? Well, neither does the Food and Drug Administration, because it doesn’t monitor companies that produce bottled water, nor does it require these companies to report when their water tests positive for contaminants. Neat! The Wall Street Journal reports on Congressional hearings that are going on about bottled water right now, and apparently the FDA is pretty forthcoming in its non-tracking of the water.

FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein testified that the agency regulates bottled water as a food and doesn’t know which companies among registered food firms make bottled water. Moreover, he said, the FDA has limited power to require more information on labels, and he put in a pitch for legislation that would boost the FDA’s funding and authority for food safety.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) wants the bottled water industry to provide more comprehensive information to consumers, which seems pretty important given that the average American drank 28.5 gallons of bottled water last year, and that regulations that apply to the cleanliness of tap water don’t apply to the bottled stuff. Along with the fact that only a quarter of all empty bottles get recycled, let’s chalk this potential health risk up to yet another reason to try to limit our consumption of bottled water.

photo credit: Muffet’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons