Drinking water is the most indispensable substance for humans. Bottled drinking waters are preferred over tap water with the belief that they are more nutritious, better quality, more delicious and safe in terms of health. Therefore, the Turkish bottled (spring and mineral) water market has experienced a continuous growth since 2003, as in the whole world. This study focuses on comparing the common mineral cation calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+) and sodium (Na+) content of twenty one popular bottled spring and mineral water brands marketed in Turkey by using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The average concentrations of Ca, Mg and Na analyzed in bottled spring and mineral water samples were found as 14.9, 24.1 and 8.2 mg/L and 147.9, 44.3 and 117.3 mg/L, respectively. This comparison confirms that bottled natural mineral water has better quality in terms of major nutrient minerals than bottled natural spring waters.

The present study aimed to determine the variation in calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K), which are crucial macronutrients for plants, in soil and plant organs at a copper mining site. In the study, the soil was sampled from various soil depths in the spoil field, the rehabilitation site in which planting was carried out and adult trees were present, and the forest area. Furthermore, bark, leaf, root, and wood samples were taken from black pine (Pinus nigra Arnold.), scots (Pinus silvestris L.), and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) species growing in the rehabilitation and forest areas. The work determined general variation in the concentrations of elements in soils and organs according to the plant species, and variation in element concentrations depending on the soil depth was statistically significant only in Ca. However, the determined element concentrations were quite high. In line with the average values, the variation in Mg in plants was not statistically significant, while the highest Ca and K concentrations were obtained from Robinia pseudoacacia species.