21 brands of mineral water found unsafe: PCRWR

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21 brands of mineral water found unsafe: PCRWR

Islamabad—Twenty one mineral/bottled water brands selling in different cities have been found unsafe for health due to chemical or microbiological contamination. The poor quality of drinking water in the country has forced a large cross-section of citizens to buy bottled water.

As a consequence of this expanding market, a mushroom growth of bottled water industry in the country has been witnessed during the last few years.

To monitor and improve the quality of bottled water, the government of Pakistan through Ministry of Science & Technology has assigned the task to Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources for quarterly monitoring of bottled water brands and publicizing the results.

According to a press release issued here on Friday, the monitoring report for the quarter (January-March, 2014), said that 68 samples of mineral/bottled water brands have been collected from Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Sialkot, Sahiwal, D.G.Khan and Multan.

Comparison of analytical findings with permissible limits of Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has revealed that 21 brands (i.e. Best Water, Sea Breeze, Aab-e-Kech, Ideal Life, Natural, Standard, Aqua Hygienic, Natural Aqwah, Aquatic Fresh, Butt, Cool, Premier, Al-Sana, Effort, Aqua National, Aftab Qarshi, Nectar, Lite Aqua, Fit, Minter & Aqua Smart) have been found to be unsafe due to chemical or microbiological contamination.

Out of those 21 unsafe brands 8 brands i.e. Natural, Butt, Cool, Premier, Al-Sana, Aqua National, Nectar, and Fit) have high level of Arsenic ranging from 14-66 ppb (Permissible limit is 10 ppb) which has hazardous impact on health, as it can cause cancer, diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension, heart diseases birth defects, black foot diseases etc.

The report said that 8 brands (Sea Breeze, Aabe-e-Kech, Ideal Life, Natural Aqua, Aqatic Fresh, Aqua Hygienic, Aftab Qarshi & Minter) have been found contaminated microbiologically, which can cause Cholera, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Hepatitis, Typhoid etc., four brands i.e. (Best Water, Aqua Hygienic, Lite Aqua and Aqua Smart) were found to have high levels of Sodium.

Three brands were found to have high levels of Potassium (Standard), TDS (Aqua Smart) and pH (Effort) respectively.—APP

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