Your bottled water is contaminated by pesticides. Gaping holes in regulations and
corporate irresponsibility in the fastest growing segment of the beverage industry make a
mockery of public health
New Delhi, February 4, 2003: We take it for granted that the
bottled water we drink is safe. But a Down To Earth exposé, based on tests
conducted by the Pollution Monitoring Laboratory of the Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE) shows otherwise.
After analysing 17 brands of packaged drinking water sold in and around
Delhi and 13 brands from the Mumbai region, the CSE lab found the samples to contain a
deadly cocktail of pesticide residues. Most of the samples contained as much as five
different pesticide residues, in levels far exceeding the standards specified as safe for
drinking water.
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Click to enlarge |
(Left to right)
Rashmi Mishra and Sapna Johnson of the CSE Pollution Monitoring Lab and CSE director
Sunita Narain field questions from the media |
The samples had enough poison to
cause in the long term, cancer, liver and kidney damage, disorders of the nervous system,
birth defects, and disruption of the immune system. Pesticides do not kill immediately,
but can cause irreparable health disorders as they accumulate in the body fat.
The CSE lab tested for two types of
pesticides: organochlorine and organophosphorus. The findings were appalling. The four
most commonly found pesticide residues were lindane, DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos.
Using European Economic Commission norms for maximum permissible limits for pesticides in
packaged water, the CSE lab tests of samples from the Delhi region showed that on average,
each sample contained 36.4 times more pesticides than the stipulated levels. The Mumbai
samples were a shade better, primarily because the source water used by the industry was
relatively less contaminated.
CSE used European norms because the
standards set for pesticide residues by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are vague and
undefined. The standards say, "pesticide residues shall be below detectable
limits". This, one would assume, means that there ought to be no pesticide residues
at all in the bottled water. But no, it actually means that one should not be able to find
the pesticide residues in the water. The BIS has specified the methodology for detecting
pesticide residues and this methodology, which is not very sensitive, does not detect
pesticides unless present in extremely high quantities.
Even for drinking water, the BIS norms
specify that pesticide residues should be "absent". What is plainly absurd is
that if drinking water norms specify that pesticides should not be present, how can
packaged drinking water norms be so vague, and use a non-quantifiable phrase, such as
"below detectable limits"? Even going by drinking water norms, all the bottled
water brands tested by the CSE lab would fail the test of quality.
What was found:
Top seller Bisleri was third
from the bottom, with pesticide concentration levels 79 times higher than the stipulated
limits (see graph). Kinley had concentration levels 14.6 times
above the maximum permissible amounts. Aquaplus — favoured by the Indian Railways
— topped the dubious list, crossing the limit by 104 times!
Contamination levels were significantly lower in packaged
natural mineral water brands Himalayan and Catch from Himachal Pradesh, a state with lower
pesticide use.
In the Mumbai region, the worst brand was Oxyrich, with 16.7
times higher pesticide concentration levels than the prescribed standards. Bisleri and
Kinley fared better in the Mumbai samples – they were ranked 7th and 4th
respectively.
The lab also collected raw water from
bottling plants to verify its findings. In all cases, tests showed that the pesticides
found in the source water matched the toxins found in the bottled water — proof that
the source of the pesticide residues is contaminated groundwater. Plants manage to
eliminate somewhere between 20 and 80 per cent of the residues. But no regulations exist
to ensure that bottled water plants are set up in clean groundwater zones.
The study is important because of the
implications for public health. Pesticides ingested in small quantities over time are
known to have severe effects on the human immune system. What will it take for regulatory
bodies to tighten controls? Should the bottled water industry be allowed to play havoc
with public health and breach consumer trust?
CLIMATE
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