The current issue of Consumer Reports (November 2020, vol 85 No. 11) (CR) has as the featured article “Your Guide to Safer Drinking Water ” and includes a section “What’s Really In Your Bottled Water?”
CR tested 47 bottled waters for per- and polyfluroalkyl substances (PFLS), also known as the “forever chemicals” because they last a very long time. They are in the class of approximately 5,000 substances notorious for their potential danger to humans. Of the 47 tested, PFAS were detected in 43.
They have been detected in more than 1,400 communities in 49 states, and the EPA has been investigating them since 1990 but still has not issued an enforceable nation-wide standard on them. Many independent scientists, however, have agreed to a unit of 1 part per trillion (ppt) as a maximum.
Among Nestle bottled water products that CU found to contain PFAS are: Nestle Pure Life, Poland Spring, Zephyrhills, Ice Mountain, Ozarka, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Perrier and San Pelligrino. Deer Park , Poland Spring and San Pelligrino had exceptionally high content of chemical.
When CU contacted Nestle, the bottling company claimed that their testing detected no PFAS in Deer Park bottled water. This reminds us of their false claims regarding plastic recycling and sustainability.
These latest toxins add to the excessive nitrates found in Nestle’s water that comes from the Ginnie Springs plant, which exceed by at least three times the maximum amount recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Tampa Zephryhills plant which has double that of Ginnie.
All the more reason to drink tap water and carry a little refillable bottle.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
It’s bad enough that Nestle is putting our water in plastic – now they’re caught putting plastic in our water!!