Bottled-water
survey:
Group sees impurities in some water brands
By Chris Bowman
Bee Staff Writer
(Published March 31, 1999)
SAN FRANCISCO -- If it's absolute purity they want, consumers of bottled drinking water
will be dismayed by the test results released Tuesday by a national environmental
organization.
But if government drinking water standards are good enough, they'll be heartened to learn
the vast majority of samples from the 103 brands surveyed by the Natural Resources Defense
Council are within a safe range.
The council nonetheless said it found enough impurities to petition the federal government
for more stringent testing and quality standards for bottled water, which is regulated by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the state Department of Health Services.
As part of a two-pronged strategy for stricter regulation, the Environmental Law
Foundation of Oakland filed a lawsuit Tuesday to stop eight bottlers from selling or
advertising in California unless they post consumer warnings on their product labels about
the presence of harmful chemicals.
The lawsuit, which is based on the NRDC's test findings, accuses the companies of engaging
in unfair business practices, violating state health and safety rules and making false
advertising claims about the purity of their water.
The lawsuit is about truth in labeling, said James Wheaton, the lead attorney who filed
the complaint Monday in San Francisco County Superior Court.
"Just because it's in a bottle, doesn't mean it's better," Wheaton said at a
press conference held with the NRDC in San Francisco.
The water bottlers named in the suit are major producers: Crystal Geyser Water Co. of
Calistoga; McKesson Water Products Co. of Pasadena, producers of Alhambra and Sparkletts;
Safeway Inc.; Lucky Stores Inc.; Ralphs Grocery Co. of Compton; Vittel Inc., a division of
Perrier Group of America, in Stamford, Conn.; Volvic, produced by Resurrection Enterprises
of Santa Cruz; and Apollinaris, a German import.
Industry representatives vigorously denied the allegations and berated NRDC for putting an
alarmist spin on its test results.
"NRDC is trying to scare consumers with its report on bottled water, when the NRDC's
own testing shows that bottled water is safe," said Bruce Hayes, spokesman for the
International Bottled Water Association of Alexandria, Va., which represents producers of
most bottled water sold in the United States.
Nearly a third of all Americans drink bottled water, and nearly a third of them are
Californians. Since 1982, sales have quadrupled to $4.3 billion a year, industry marketing
data shows.
The NRDC contends that the industry needs closer scrutiny with so many consumers spending
from 240 to more than 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than for tap water.
"This sales bonanza has been fueled by ubiquitous ads picturing towering mountains,
pristine glaciers and crystal-clear springs nestled in untouched forests yielding
absolutely pure water," begins the 209-page NRDC report.
To put the marketing image to the test, the environmental group said it conducted a
four-year study of the bottled water industry, including tests by independent commercial
and academic laboratories of bottled water sold in California, Florida, Illinois, New York
and Texas.
The NRDC tests found byproducts of chlorination that are common in tap water and levels of
naturally occurring arsenic and bacteria in 55 percent of the samples from the 103 brands
surveyed. Only 4 percent violated federal health standards for bottled water, which the
group contends are too lax and in some cases less stringent than those set for tap water.
The NRDC petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to establish the
toughest water quality standards possible for the industry. They also want a requirement
that water bottlers list on their labels "any contaminants of potential concern"
and other consumer information.
The petition comes as the FDA is changing bottled water rules to make sure they are
"no less protective of the public health" than the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency standards for treatment of tap water.
The lawsuit contends that Crystal Geyser, Vittel, Volvic and Apollinaris should have
consumer warnings on their lables based on the levels of arsenic found in the NRDC
samples. Chronic ingestion of arsenic, a naturally occurring mineral, is known to cause
bladder, lung and skin cancer. However, the levels of arsenic were within government
health limits.
Officials with Crystal Geyser of Calistoga denied the accusations in the lawsuit and
called them "unnecessarily alarming." They also contended that NRDC has
"inconsistencies in their testing, and other problems."
The suit targets Ralphs Private Selection Drinking Water and Lucky's seltzer and Lady Lee
purified water and drinking water for exceeding federal standards for
trihalomethanes,byproducts of chlorine disinfection processes at treatment plants that
studies have linked to miscarriages.
James Waddel, acting chief of the state health services' food-safety section, said the
standard is not enforceable because it is not health-based but rather set to satisfy
industry's desire to achieve better water quality. "There just
isn't a public health issue at the levels found by NRDC," he said.
The lawsuit accuses Safeway of taking it's "spring" water from municipal water
supplies, but a company representative called the allegation "false."
"Our spring water comes from a source in Northern California. An Auburn company ships
it to us, and we know it is certified as spring water," said Debra Lambert,
spokeswoman for the supermarket chains' national headquarters in Pleasanton.
|
| Contaminated Water by the Bottle Bottled
water, whose surging sales have been driven by a consumer thirst for purity, sometimes
contains contaminants and is not necessarily cleaner or safer than tap water, according to
a four-year study made public Tuesday by a national environmental group.
Testing 103 brands of bottled water, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that
samples from one-third of the brands contained chemical or bacterial contamination
exceeding industry or government guidelines.
While the study concluded "that most bottled water apparently is of good
quality," it maintains that many brands don't match their pristine claims.
Bottled water "is of spotty quality," said Dr. Gina Solomon, senior
scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "People are not always getting
the purity they've paid for."
In conjunction with the study, the Environmental Law Foundation announced the filing of a
lawsuit in San Francisco against eight bottled water companies doing business in
California, accusing them of violating the state's false advertising and health and safety
laws.
"It's not an acute health hazard that's the issue," said Laura McKinney of the
law foundation. "The issue is these companies are claiming to be pristine and clean
and natural, and they are violating standards in California and are profiting. This is an
industry that needs to live up to its advertisements and statements."
Industry representatives quickly defended their product, saying there have been no
confirmed reports in the United States of illness or disease linked to bottled water.
"Bottled water is extremely safe," said Cindy Yablonski of the International
Bottled Water Assn.
Yablonski, whose organization represents companies that produce 85% of the bottled water
sold in the United States, faulted the report for holding bottled water to a variety of
industry and government standards, when, in fact, bottlers do meet existing federal
regulations. "We believe they are very strict, adequate for the industry," she
said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council strongly disagreed Tuesday, calling for a
strengthening of federal bottled water standards, which are overseen by the Food and Drug
Administration and are not as tough as federal regulations governing public tap water
supplies.
The environmental group concluded that most of the water tested was relatively free of
contamination and "therefore generally doesn't pose a health threat to healthy
people."
But the organization also warned that the presence of certain types of bacteria in some
samples might pose problems for vulnerable populations, including infants, the frail
elderly and those with HIV and AIDS.
Finding a Market
After a brief scare in 1990 when samples of Perrier were found to contain benzene,
sales of bottled water exploded, driven by consumers who either dislike the taste of tap
water or have concerns about contamination of public drinking water supplies.
In recent years, tap water, which is more tightly regulated than bottled water by the
federal government, has been found in some cities to contain contaminants.
With its large, often health-conscious population, California is a leading market
for bottled water, with state residents consuming more than one-fourth of the nation's
total of more than 3.2 billon gallons a year, according to industry statistics. In 1987,
Californians purchased 486 million gallons of bottled water; in 1997, state consumption
had leaped to 893 million gallons.
However, the lawsuit alleges, some companies selling bottled water are breaking state law,
which includes the toughest bottled water regulations in the nation.
Filed in San Francisco Superior Court, the suit makes a number of claims. Among them:
* That Crystal Geyser, Vittel, Volvic and Apollinaris should
carry Proposition 65 warnings that some lines of their bottled water contain arsenic
levels exceeding 5 parts per billion.
Arsenic, a carcinogen, occurs naturally in soil, and federal drinking water standards
permit up to 50 ppb. All the samples cited in the lawsuit contained less than that amount.
But the suit contends that bottled water, as a consumer product, is subject to the state's
stricter Proposition 65 warning provision.
* That Crystal Geyser, Safeway, Vittel, Volvic and
Apollinaris are "falsely or deceptively" representing the "purity,
wholesome[ness] and healthfulness of their bottled water products" when some samples
actually contained levels of contaminants exceeding state bottled water or Proposition 65
standards.
* That Safeway's drinking, purified and spring water and
Alhambra's mountain spring water contain levels of heterotrophic bacteria that exceed
state and industry standards.
* That Lucky, Ralphs and Safeway brands of bottled water
contain levels of chlorine byproducts exceeding state bottled water standards.
* That Safeway's "spring water" appears to be
derived from a public water supply.
Safeway Inc. representative Debra Lambert categorically denied the latter assertion.
"Absolutely false," she said. "It is from a certified spring."
She also denied that the company engaged in unfair or misleading business practices.
"We go to great lengths to ensure the integrity of products," she said.
Lucky declined to comment, saying that it had not seen the suit. Crystal Geyser said the
suit "was unnecessarily alarming to consumers." "For the
record," the company said in a statement, "we believe we are in full compliance
with Proposition 65 and all other state and federal regulations, and certainly are not
engaged in any unfair business practices."
Yablonski, of the bottled water association, dismissed any concerns about heterotrophic
bacteria, saying "it's safe, natural, of no health concern." |
