The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) announced today that Tom Lauria has joined the association as Vice President for Communications. His duties include media relations; the editorial content for IBWA's website, IBWA'S Bottled Water Reporter bimonthly magazine, and the weekly email news alert Splash; and development of IBWA's public affairs outreach programs.

"In a Washington D.C.-based career spanning 25 years, Tom Lauria has successfully managed some challenging media relations and public affairs issues," said IBWA President Joe Doss. "He's in the right place at the right time."

Before joining IBWA, Lauria served as a communications contractor with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Federal Detention Trustee.

Lauria was retained by the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan to initiate and supervise its U.S. media relations efforts, including President Hamid Karzai's first U.S. visit in January 2002.

As a spokesperson for The Tobacco Institute, he conducted two national media tours to introduce the "We Card" retail signage program in all 50 states to improve enforcement of minimum-age sales laws.

He represented the Embassy of Cyprus as it sought entry to the European Union.

Early in his career, Lauria was the promotion and research manager of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and director of communications for a division of MCI Telecommunications.

Tom Lauria holds a BS in Journalism from the University of Detroit and an MFA in Media Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) is the authoritative source of information about all types of bottled waters. Founded in 1958, IBWA's membership includes U.S. and international bottlers, distributors and suppliers. IBWA is committed to working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates bottled water as a packaged food product, and state governments to set stringent standards for safe, high quality bottled water products. In addition to FDA and state regulations, the Association requires member bottlers to adhere to the IBWA Bottled Water Code of Practice, which mandates additional standards and practices that in some cases are more stringent than federal and state regulations. A key feature of the IBWA Bottled Water Code of Practice is an annual, unannounced plant inspection by an independent, third party organization. Consumers can contact IBWA at 1-800-WATER-11 or log onto IBWA's web site (www.bottledwater.org) for more information about bottled water and a list of members' brands. Media inquiries can be directed to IBWA Vice President of Communications Tom Lauria at 703-647-4609 or tlauria@bottledwater.org.