7 ms·

Arsenic in Some Bottled Water Brands at Unsafe Levels, Consumer Reports Says

80 points by adanto6840 7y ago

oil25 7y ago
We've been using a Big Berkey water filtration system for some years now and totally did away with plastic-bottled water. The arsenic/flouride filters are optional, but I think worth it. I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). Regardless, I feel the money spent on Berkey and its filters were worth it, even if just for my own psychological coddling.
- shortandsweet 7y ago
  I also have a berkey, was gifted to me. They say it's a pretty good filter but I looked up the qualifications and it's not rated for a lot of the typical tests the government uses to qualify water to. I also don't see anywhere on berkeys end that they will support this testing. In the mean time the only way I've been able to think of to reduce potential contaminated water is to vary my sources.
- cornstalks 7y ago
  > I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). The wording makes it sound like you only tested your filtered water. Seems like you'd want to test both the pre-filtered and post-filtered water to really know if your filters are "very effective."
  - oil25 7y ago
    I agree, but the test was pretty expensive (about $400) so I only opted to test the "filtered" output since that's what I end up drinking and cooking with. I would definitely like to do a comparison test in the future.
    - skuhn 7y ago
      Testing your unfiltered water as a control to your filter is a good idea, but also you're still bathing in that water. $400 seems quite high. There are much cheaper tests available, such as the National Testing Labs City Check test ($126 + return shipping) at https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/ https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/
- nextos 7y ago
  Be careful with Berkey. It's a pretty scammy brand, but this is not well known. Essentially, Berkey was created to resell British Berkenfeld / Doulton filters in the US. They simply tweaked the brand name Berkenfeld into Berkey and began US distribution. Doulton has a rich history, and is a very legitimate brand. They invented ceramic filters in Victorian times. Berkenfeld was a German competitor that was transferred to British hands after WWI. Once Berkey started selling well, they began sourcing some filter candles in China. These are no longer Berkenfeld / Doulton. They don't look similar.
- perfunctory 7y ago
  Is it really necessary to use filters, isn't tap water safe for drinking in the US?
  - asark 7y ago
    Filtered or bottled often tastes a lot better. Depends on where you live. Tap's noticeably worse than bottled or filtered where we live now, but not intolerably bad. We used to live somewhere (in the US, to be clear) that, if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. You could tell if a restaurant didn't filter their water because you could smell it in the cup, from a good foot away (luckily, most filtered it). This despite bathing and washing clothes in it and therefore probably being less sensitive to the odor than someone from out of town would be. Needless to say it tasted terrible. We didn't even cook with that stuff. Cheap gallon jugs of filtered water for cooking.
    - voldacar 7y ago
      >if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. Well water I assume?
      - asark 7y ago
        It was municipal water. Whole town was that way. googles Looks like it came from the Ozark Aquifer. No clue what weirdness was happening to it in between, but it reliably drew a "sniff sniff WTF?" from visitors. Again, you could tell when a restaurant in the area was serving water straight from the tap in by smell, before the water reached your lips.
  - ralph84 7y ago
    There’s a big gap between safe and palatable. Anyone who says just drink from the tap has never lived somewhere where the water source is very hard groundwater.
matt-attack 7y ago
I purchased this high-flow 3M filter which just goes on your cold water tap in the kitchen: 3M Aqua-Pure Under Sink Water Filtration System - Model 3MFF100 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M216HFW/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M216HFW/ I’ve mostly given up on bottled water as a result. It’s a bit odd to run all your water through the filter but once you resign yourself to replacing it once a year, the anxiety of washing dishes with filtered water goes away. Installation was a snap and the water tastes fantastic. Still haven’t order a pair of water quality tests (before/after) but I’m looking forward to doing so.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  I doubt those stop arsenic, though. You'd need something like a reverse osmosis or distillation system for that.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Generally, your municipal water supply is doing a decent job at that.
    - voldacar 7y ago
      By the time it reaches your house and sink though, it could have traveled through several miles of metal pipes of varying age and condition. Having a filter or RO system at the actual endpoint is never a bad idea
    - orhmeh09 7y ago
      For far too many Americans, this is not the case, sadly. http://theconversation.com/the-us-drinking-water-supply-is-mostly-safe-but-thats-not-good-enough-115028 http://theconversation.com/the-us-drinking-water-supply-is-m...
- whycombagator 7y ago
  Just as an FYI - that looks like only a 2 stage filter. Activated carbon and a membrane. I have only researched multi-stage countertop models in the past, but a quick 2 mins on amazon reveals for another ~$100 you can get a much more comprehensive under-sink filtration system. During my search it appeared there are WQA and NSF certifications on a few of them. I know nothing about those certifications, but someone purchasing a water filter might wish to look into them.
callmeal 7y ago
>On April 26, (2019!) CR learned that the Food and Drug Administration has known of high arsenic levels in Peñafiel bottled water, from Keurig Dr Pepper, since at least 2013. Wow. Just Wow. This ties in so well with the other news article about how the US is turning into a developing country for some segment of the population.
- swixm 7y ago
  Isn't that segment of the population unlikely to consume bottled water?
  - fwip 7y ago
    Poor places often have lower-quality tap water, both in flavor and in safety.
  - ljf 7y ago
    I'll try to find the article, but there are parts of the USA where it is cheaper to drink bottled water and have a portapotty outside your house than it is to have mains water
- devoply 7y ago
  I have a theory that despite all the arrogance of the developed world, in terms of environmental issues such as lack of safe potable water they are maybe 100 years ahead of the developing world. It's just that they have better management and larger reserves, but in the end this buys you maybe another 100 years until all the pollution stacks up and the water becomes undrinkable without significant purification. I mean just look at Flint, Michigan.
- ars 7y ago
  You are leaving out a major section of the dispute. At the time of, and in the location of, the testing, the legal limit was higher. As such the water with legal and within limits. Since that time the legal limit has been lowered and consumer reports thinks they should go even lower, which makes the retrospective information look very bad. But your comments about developing country are quite misplaced because you left out all the relevant details.
evo_9 7y ago
I switched to Flow water recently, highly recommended and a nice alternative to sport drinks if you are in need a good source of electrolytes. I drink a 33 oz bottle during each of my 3-4 skates (hockey) a week. My wife loves the flavored versions too, and often have that with our dinners. https://flowhydration.com https://flowhydration.com
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  > if you are in need a good source of electrolytes How do you know if you're in need of a good source of electrolytes?
  - lightbritefight 7y ago
    If you workout and have sharp, sudden muscle cramps in the affected areas, youre in need of electrolytes. If you are about to do the same workout that causes the above, its a good idea to imbide them beforehand instead.
    - mehrdadn 7y ago
      Huh, interesting, thanks!
    - dghughes 7y ago
      You'll probably consume three of the most common electrolytes; sodium, potassium, and calcium even without trying. Sources table salt, bananas, milk. Chloride is in tomato products and tomatoes also are sources of potassium. The others are quite common in everyday food types too. You pretty much need to go out of your way to not consume any of those essential electrolytes. SI can't really imagine that strenuous exercise shouldn't deplete electrolytes unless it's for a really long period in hot conditions.
      - evo_9 7y ago
        I don’t eat much, big fan if Green Chef’s paleo menu, typical dinner is under 500 calories. I generally eat salad for Lunch.
lightedman 7y ago
2/3 of bottled water is contaminated in one form or another. No joke the best option is usually straight from your tap with a good filtration system, preferably RO.
- Joakal 7y ago
  How do you know 2/3 of bottled water is contaminated? In what way?
  - thatcat 7y ago
    If you include the Bpa from the plastic itself as contamination, that puts it at closer to 100%.
    - swebs 7y ago
      Disposable PET bottles don't contain BPA. Some of the reusable ones do.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
Since I've read many of you mention filtered water systems, any good recommendations for a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system? (currently living in San Francisco)
- DougWebb 7y ago
  I've been using Waterwise distillers for 20 years or so. I used the 9000 model for a long time, and for the past several years I've been using the 3200. I make 1-2 gallons of water a day, every day. Buy a spare container so you can keep one in the fridge while one is being made. They don't last forever, but Waterwise's customer support has been great; I've done repairs a few times and gotten replacements at reasonable prices. https://www.waterwise.com/product-category/waterwise-water-distillers-for-home-and-office/ https://www.waterwise.com/product-category/waterwise-water-d...
jandrewrogers 7y ago
Bottled water has always had a dubious record when it comes to contamination but arsenic safety regulations have been muddied by unrelated politics. The EPA sets the ideal level at zero (no safe level) with a max of 10ppb but it is also an essential micronutrient in mammalian biology. It is similar in profile to selenium -- highly toxic in all but microscopic doses but necessary to live. For arsenic, much of this comes naturally in water or via eating animals that drink water. Current mammalian models suggest that humans require something like 20-50ug of arsenic, equivalent to drinking a few liters of water at the current max allowed level. Nothing too controversial here, but it should cause one to raise an eyebrow when a government agency asserts that an essential micronutrient is toxic at doses low enough to cause deficiency. Current reductions in allowed levels are part of a proxy war on mining. Geology that naturally has background arsenic levels far above this limit is also correlated with minerals worth mining. Even if the mining is done cleanly and releases no additional arsenic into the environment, you are still responsible for remediating the area to the safety standard and not the natural background level. It ends up being a de facto ban on new mining in some regions, which is the intent. Decades ago this strategy was applied to natural contaminants that are unconditionally bad for human biology, which made it easy to set extremely low safety limits. In recent years, it has been expanded to natural contaminants where the mandated levels have a sketchier basis in science. Which isn't to say that bottled water contamination is not a problem, just that I am skeptical that the arsenic levels being discussed here are anywhere close to harmful. They are collateral damage in an unrelated political battle.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

80 points by adanto6840 7y ago

We've been using a Big Berkey water filtration system for some years now and totally did away with plastic-bottled water. The arsenic/flouride filters are optional, but I think worth it. I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). Regardless, I feel the money spent on Berkey and its filters were worth it, even if just for my own psychological coddling.

shortandsweet 7y ago
I also have a berkey, was gifted to me. They say it's a pretty good filter but I looked up the qualifications and it's not rated for a lot of the typical tests the government uses to qualify water to. I also don't see anywhere on berkeys end that they will support this testing. In the mean time the only way I've been able to think of to reduce potential contaminated water is to vary my sources.
cornstalks 7y ago
> I recently commissioned a lab test for my drinking water and the filters appear to be very effective, although it may be the case that my city water is already high quality and arsenic-free (for now). The wording makes it sound like you only tested your filtered water. Seems like you'd want to test both the pre-filtered and post-filtered water to really know if your filters are "very effective."
- oil25 7y ago
  I agree, but the test was pretty expensive (about $400) so I only opted to test the "filtered" output since that's what I end up drinking and cooking with. I would definitely like to do a comparison test in the future.
  - skuhn 7y ago
    Testing your unfiltered water as a control to your filter is a good idea, but also you're still bathing in that water. $400 seems quite high. There are much cheaper tests available, such as the National Testing Labs City Check test ($126 + return shipping) at https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/ https://www.purewaterproducts.com/watercheck/
nextos 7y ago
Be careful with Berkey. It's a pretty scammy brand, but this is not well known. Essentially, Berkey was created to resell British Berkenfeld / Doulton filters in the US. They simply tweaked the brand name Berkenfeld into Berkey and began US distribution. Doulton has a rich history, and is a very legitimate brand. They invented ceramic filters in Victorian times. Berkenfeld was a German competitor that was transferred to British hands after WWI. Once Berkey started selling well, they began sourcing some filter candles in China. These are no longer Berkenfeld / Doulton. They don't look similar.
perfunctory 7y ago
Is it really necessary to use filters, isn't tap water safe for drinking in the US?
- asark 7y ago
  Filtered or bottled often tastes a lot better. Depends on where you live. Tap's noticeably worse than bottled or filtered where we live now, but not intolerably bad. We used to live somewhere (in the US, to be clear) that, if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. You could tell if a restaurant didn't filter their water because you could smell it in the cup, from a good foot away (luckily, most filtered it). This despite bathing and washing clothes in it and therefore probably being less sensitive to the odor than someone from out of town would be. Needless to say it tasted terrible. We didn't even cook with that stuff. Cheap gallon jugs of filtered water for cooking.
  - voldacar 7y ago
    >if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. Well water I assume?
    - asark 7y ago
      It was municipal water. Whole town was that way. googles Looks like it came from the Ozark Aquifer. No clue what weirdness was happening to it in between, but it reliably drew a "sniff sniff WTF?" from visitors. Again, you could tell when a restaurant in the area was serving water straight from the tap in by smell, before the water reached your lips.
- ralph84 7y ago
  There’s a big gap between safe and palatable. Anyone who says just drink from the tap has never lived somewhere where the water source is very hard groundwater.

matt-attack 7y ago

I purchased this high-flow 3M filter which just goes on your cold water tap in the kitchen: 3M Aqua-Pure Under Sink Water Filtration System - Model 3MFF100 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M216HFW/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M216HFW/ I’ve mostly given up on bottled water as a result. It’s a bit odd to run all your water through the filter but once you resign yourself to replacing it once a year, the anxiety of washing dishes with filtered water goes away. Installation was a snap and the water tastes fantastic. Still haven’t order a pair of water quality tests (before/after) but I’m looking forward to doing so.

ceejayoz 7y ago
I doubt those stop arsenic, though. You'd need something like a reverse osmosis or distillation system for that.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Generally, your municipal water supply is doing a decent job at that.
  - voldacar 7y ago
    By the time it reaches your house and sink though, it could have traveled through several miles of metal pipes of varying age and condition. Having a filter or RO system at the actual endpoint is never a bad idea
  - orhmeh09 7y ago
    For far too many Americans, this is not the case, sadly. http://theconversation.com/the-us-drinking-water-supply-is-mostly-safe-but-thats-not-good-enough-115028 http://theconversation.com/the-us-drinking-water-supply-is-m...
whycombagator 7y ago
Just as an FYI - that looks like only a 2 stage filter. Activated carbon and a membrane. I have only researched multi-stage countertop models in the past, but a quick 2 mins on amazon reveals for another ~$100 you can get a much more comprehensive under-sink filtration system. During my search it appeared there are WQA and NSF certifications on a few of them. I know nothing about those certifications, but someone purchasing a water filter might wish to look into them.

callmeal 7y ago

>On April 26, (2019!) CR learned that the Food and Drug Administration has known of high arsenic levels in Peñafiel bottled water, from Keurig Dr Pepper, since at least 2013. Wow. Just Wow. This ties in so well with the other news article about how the US is turning into a developing country for some segment of the population.

swixm 7y ago
Isn't that segment of the population unlikely to consume bottled water?
- fwip 7y ago
  Poor places often have lower-quality tap water, both in flavor and in safety.
- ljf 7y ago
  I'll try to find the article, but there are parts of the USA where it is cheaper to drink bottled water and have a portapotty outside your house than it is to have mains water
devoply 7y ago
I have a theory that despite all the arrogance of the developed world, in terms of environmental issues such as lack of safe potable water they are maybe 100 years ahead of the developing world. It's just that they have better management and larger reserves, but in the end this buys you maybe another 100 years until all the pollution stacks up and the water becomes undrinkable without significant purification. I mean just look at Flint, Michigan.
ars 7y ago
You are leaving out a major section of the dispute. At the time of, and in the location of, the testing, the legal limit was higher. As such the water with legal and within limits. Since that time the legal limit has been lowered and consumer reports thinks they should go even lower, which makes the retrospective information look very bad. But your comments about developing country are quite misplaced because you left out all the relevant details.

evo_9 7y ago

I switched to Flow water recently, highly recommended and a nice alternative to sport drinks if you are in need a good source of electrolytes. I drink a 33 oz bottle during each of my 3-4 skates (hockey) a week. My wife loves the flavored versions too, and often have that with our dinners. https://flowhydration.com https://flowhydration.com

mehrdadn 7y ago
> if you are in need a good source of electrolytes How do you know if you're in need of a good source of electrolytes?
- lightbritefight 7y ago
  If you workout and have sharp, sudden muscle cramps in the affected areas, youre in need of electrolytes. If you are about to do the same workout that causes the above, its a good idea to imbide them beforehand instead.
  - mehrdadn 7y ago
    Huh, interesting, thanks!
  - dghughes 7y ago
    You'll probably consume three of the most common electrolytes; sodium, potassium, and calcium even without trying. Sources table salt, bananas, milk. Chloride is in tomato products and tomatoes also are sources of potassium. The others are quite common in everyday food types too. You pretty much need to go out of your way to not consume any of those essential electrolytes. SI can't really imagine that strenuous exercise shouldn't deplete electrolytes unless it's for a really long period in hot conditions.
    - evo_9 7y ago
      I don’t eat much, big fan if Green Chef’s paleo menu, typical dinner is under 500 calories. I generally eat salad for Lunch.

lightedman 7y ago

2/3 of bottled water is contaminated in one form or another. No joke the best option is usually straight from your tap with a good filtration system, preferably RO.

Joakal 7y ago
How do you know 2/3 of bottled water is contaminated? In what way?
- thatcat 7y ago
  If you include the Bpa from the plastic itself as contamination, that puts it at closer to 100%.
  - swebs 7y ago
    Disposable PET bottles don't contain BPA. Some of the reusable ones do.

simonebrunozzi 7y ago

Since I've read many of you mention filtered water systems, any good recommendations for a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system? (currently living in San Francisco)

DougWebb 7y ago
I've been using Waterwise distillers for 20 years or so. I used the 9000 model for a long time, and for the past several years I've been using the 3200. I make 1-2 gallons of water a day, every day. Buy a spare container so you can keep one in the fridge while one is being made. They don't last forever, but Waterwise's customer support has been great; I've done repairs a few times and gotten replacements at reasonable prices. https://www.waterwise.com/product-category/waterwise-water-distillers-for-home-and-office/ https://www.waterwise.com/product-category/waterwise-water-d...

jandrewrogers 7y ago

Bottled water has always had a dubious record when it comes to contamination but arsenic safety regulations have been muddied by unrelated politics. The EPA sets the ideal level at zero (no safe level) with a max of 10ppb but it is also an essential micronutrient in mammalian biology. It is similar in profile to selenium -- highly toxic in all but microscopic doses but necessary to live. For arsenic, much of this comes naturally in water or via eating animals that drink water. Current mammalian models suggest that humans require something like 20-50ug of arsenic, equivalent to drinking a few liters of water at the current max allowed level. Nothing too controversial here, but it should cause one to raise an eyebrow when a government agency asserts that an essential micronutrient is toxic at doses low enough to cause deficiency. Current reductions in allowed levels are part of a proxy war on mining. Geology that naturally has background arsenic levels far above this limit is also correlated with minerals worth mining. Even if the mining is done cleanly and releases no additional arsenic into the environment, you are still responsible for remediating the area to the safety standard and not the natural background level. It ends up being a de facto ban on new mining in some regions, which is the intent. Decades ago this strategy was applied to natural contaminants that are unconditionally bad for human biology, which made it easy to set extremely low safety limits. In recent years, it has been expanded to natural contaminants where the mandated levels have a sketchier basis in science. Which isn't to say that bottled water contamination is not a problem, just that I am skeptical that the arsenic levels being discussed here are anywhere close to harmful. They are collateral damage in an unrelated political battle.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]