Contribution of calcium in drinking water from a South American country to dietary calcium intake.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the calcium concentration of tap and bottled waters from Argentina and to estimate the contribution of drinking water to calcium recommendations.

RESULTS

Calcium concentrations provided by water authorities ranged from 6 to 105 mg/L. The mean calcium level of samples analysed at the Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sanitaria, National University of La Plata was 15.8 (SD ± 13.2) mg/L and at the Bone Biology Laboratory of the National University of Rosario was 13.1 (± 10.0) mg/L. Calcium values of samples from supply systems and private wells was similar. Most bottled waters had calcium levels well below 50 mg/L. The intake of one litre of drinking water from Argentina could represent in average between 1.2 and 8.0% of the calcium daily values for an adult.