How safe is the water you're drinking?

Is the water you're drinking safe? Arsenic, lead, and harmful bacteria like E-coli taint much of the world's water supply, and just because you buy your water in a bottle doesn't necessarily mean you're in the clear.

Here's a look at some high-tech gadgets to purify your drinking water at home and on the go:

You're saying that even if I drink bottled water, I'm no safer than if I was drinking tap water?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water. Also, people need to understand that while the EPA sets standards for tap water provided by public water systems, the agency has nothing to do with bottled water standards.

Amazingly, bottled water is classified as a "food product" instead of "drinking water", so it comes under the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulation, which applies similar but different standards than the EPA. For instance, while the EPA has strict standards regarding E-coli in tap water, the FDA doesn't require bottled water to meet them.

Bottled water is very convenient if you're traveling or need an emergency water supply, but it doesn't necessarily mean cleaner, healthier drinking water.

What are the most common ways to purify your drinking water at home?
BRITA and PUR make the best-known water filters on the market, and these companies make special water pitchers with built-in filters that remove lead, chlorine, mercury, and other harmful contaminants commonly found in tap water. These are the easiest and most economical gadgets to purify your drinking water at home — just fill them with tap water at your kitchen sink and store them in the fridge. They cost around $25 and are well worth it. www.brita.com and www.purwater.com

BRITA just came out with a floor-standing water cooler for the home called the BRITA Water Cooler Filtration System, for people who like a dedicated water cooler. The BRITA cooler's main benefit besides the water filtration is that its water tank is refillable, so you don't have to buy and lug those big, heavy water bottles anymore. It will be available spring '04.

PUR makes a great water filter you mount right on the end of your kitchen faucet, where it deep-filters your water right at the source. The Ultimate Faucet Mount comes in stainless steel, chrome, white, black, and has a bypass switch so you can wash dishes with full water pressure (engaging the filter reduces water pressure slightly, as do all water filters). $45

What about when you leave your home and want purified water while you're jogging or at the gym, or even just sitting at your desk at work?
The latest trend in water filters is the filtered squeeze bottle — it looks just like a typical water bottle you'd take to the gym, but it has a special water filter inside so you don't have to worry about water quality anywhere. BRITA and Sawyer Biological make great filtered squeeze bottles — in fact, US forces in Iraq used Sawyer Biological's filtered squeeze bottles to purify the local water for drinking. The Sawyer bottles come in two filter "strengths" — one for filtering tap water, and a stronger filter for more heavy-duty use like when you go camping and you need to convert lake water to drinking water. $6-45 — innovapurewater.com

Water quality is always a concern when you're camping or traveling in a foreign country. What can people do to make sure the water they drink is safe no matter where they travel?
Camping supply stores like REI have whole aisles devoted to tablets, pumps, and gadgets designed to purify even the dirtiest lake water into water suitable for drinking. But most purification tablets leave a chlorine taste in the water, and the pumps require a lot of time and energy. Instead, I recommend Katadyn's $45 Camp Filter, which hangs from a tree and uses gravity and ceramic filtration to render bacteriologically contaminated water safe to drink, without changing its mineral content. The ceramic pore size of 0.2 microns removes all bacterial pathogens from the water, i.e. Salmonella, Colibacillosis, Vibrio Cholera, Amoebas, Schistosoma (Bilharziasis), Giardia, Cryptosporidium, etc. Unlike the BRITA and similar water filters for home use, the Katadyn doesn't remove chemicals or change the taste of the water. It's designed to turn a gallon of undrinkable water into drinking water in one hour, with no pumping or tablets required. A godsend for any camper. $69 www.katadyn.net/katadyn_camp.html

If you're traveling to foreign countries, the one-of-a-kind Steri-Pen is one of the best gadgets you can bring with you. It looks like an electronic thermometer, but the Steri-Pen uses intense bursts of UV ultra-violet light to kill micro-organisms and turn a 16-oz. glass of water safe to drink in about 30 seconds. Steri-Pen wipes out E-coli, salmonella, cholera, dysentery, and other bacteria with the same UV technology used in professional water purification plants. Montezuma will have to find someone else to wreak his revenge on as long as you're packing Steri-Pen. $199 www.hydro-photon.com

Corey Greenberg is the tech editor for NBC's "Today."

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