Occurrence of Chlorate and Perchlorate in Bottled Beverages in Japan

The concentrations of chlorate and perchlorate were examined by ion chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (IC-MS-MS) in 106 bottled beverages purchased or obtained mainly in the Tokyo area to estimate exposure to these chemicals attributable to bottled beverages. The bottled beverages were classified into 5 categories: water from the water supply (n = 5), natural water (n = 49), bottled water (n = 10), tea (n = 25), and soft drinks (n 17). Chlorate was detected in 85 bottled beverages (highest concentration, 700 mu g/l), including all of the samples of bottled water from the water supply at levels ranging from 25 to 120 mu g/l. Perchlorate was detected above the minimum reporting limit (i.e., 0.05 mu g/l) from 62 bottled beverages, with the highest concentration of 0.92 mu g/l. As the average consumption of bottled beverages calculated from market statistics is approximately 400 ml/day per person, it seems important to take the amounts of chlorate and perchlorate ingested from bottled bevel-ages into consideration for estimation of total intake of these chemicals.