[Canada 02]

Tap water has an average of 170 cfu; 500 is considered the maximum

More than 70 per cent of popular brands they tested did not meet the standards set out by the United States Pharmacopeia, a non-governmental agency that sets safety standards for medications and health care products.


No more than 500 colony forming units (cfu) of bacteria per millimetre should be present in drinking water, according to the USP.


"Heterotrophic bacteria counts in some of the bottles were found to be in revolting figures of (100) times more than the permitted limit," said Sonish Azam, a researcher on the study, in a news release.


Some brands had as much as 70,000 cfu per millimetre, Azam.


The average number of colony forming units in tap water samples they tested in order to compare results was 170 per millimetre, she said.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technol...562/story.html