It Isn’t Good to Fool With Mother Nature – Contaminated Water
(AKA Reason #23 For Not Drinking Bottled Water)
In the first week of February 2024, a Las Vegas, NV Jury awarded $130,000,000 to the family of a woman who had died from drinking REAL WATER brand bottled water. The cause of death was liver failure due to non-viral hepatitis caused by consumption of water contaminated with hydrazine. In total, $228,500,000 was awarded to all who were affected.
This story goes back to 2020/2021 during which time a total of seven people ages 7 months to 69 years were hospitalized in the Las Vegas area with the particular form of hepatitis. The cause was determined by the FDA to be hydrazine and the source traced to contaminated, beautifully packaged Real Water Alkaline bottled water. Once identified, production ceased and all distributed product recalled.
Hydrazine is a very simple man-made inorganic compound with the formula N2H4 that is often used as a propellent in small rockets and munitions as well as a precursor to the production of other chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It is harmful to exposed skin and is also carcinogenic. Fortunately, it is not found in nature. Its only association with use in water is confined to acting as an oxygen scavenger to reduce corrosion in boilers. The EPA doesn’t require testing for it in drinking water and a quick look at standard testing of bottled water by laboratories doesn’t list hydrazine as a test-for analyte.
How did hydrazine get into one water bottler’s product? The answer did not appear in the summary of the trial, but some interesting possibilities were published this week in the online Chem Jobber. It was established that Real Water started out with Las Vegas municipal water (void of hydrazine) which then was carbon filtered, treated with reverse osmosis, UV exposed, ozonated, potassium chloride added, electrolysis processed, potassium hydroxide, potassium bicarbonate, and magnesium chloride added, and finally into bottles. The FDA inspector as well as one responding chemist felt that the electrolysis step inadvertently created the hydrazine with its hydrogen from electrolysis and nitrogen from the air combining. Electrochemistry can be very unpredictable as this tragic case highlights. It is a discipline practiced by few and totally understood by fewer. Our take on the source includes the electrolysis but then its reaction to chloramines disinfection in LV water that were not removed by filtration.
Trying to “improve” water beyond removing contaminants proved to be counterproductive and, in one case, deadly. We have seen the mentioned electrolysis process come and go many times over the years with names such as Redox water, ionizers, etc. At one time, marketing companies offering electrolysis equipment and its processed water were concentrated in the Salt Lake City, UT area.
We continue to advise people to avoid bottled water and employ a properly designed, installed, and maintained in-home reverse osmosis system.
