A Word Of Warning Possibly

[Guest AutumnE]

My 3 year old and I are sick from kroger spring water bought in the gallon container. Its not been confirmed yet but Im very sure that is what it was. We are planning on getting the water tested through my daughter's doctor to make sure it isnt something that needs medication to stop. Im the worst, thank goodness, I would rather it be me than my 3 year old and I drank much more water than she did.

Be careful

Autumn

[Antonia Foster]

How scary.

I hope you two are feeling better soon.

[Sillyyakdidi]

My 3 year old and I are sick from kroger spring water bought in the gallon container. Its not been confirmed yet but Im very sure that is what it was. We are planning on getting the water tested through my daughter's doctor to make sure it isnt something that needs medication to stop. Im the worst, thank goodness, I would rather it be me than my 3 year old and I drank much more water than she did.

Be careful

Autumn

I'm sorry you're feeling bad and you possibly or probably got sick from water! That's scary! I hope you feel better!!!! (I shop at kroger all the time) so thanks for the warning!

[Yenni]

Gosh, that is scary. Feel better soon.

I get their water too. But never the gallon.

[Guest AutumnE]

Thanks

We didnt end up getting it tested but it had to be it. Neither one of us had symptoms of it being a virus. I did contact her dr and she said insurance might not pay for the testing and since we are fine now I opted out of doing it. She did tell me to not buy anymore spring water though, only distilled or R.O. since spring water doesnt use a filtration system that you are setting yourself up for possible problems.

I have bought spring water before and not had a problem so it must be a bad batch. Scared me off to the point as to where its no more for us.

[larry mac]

..... She did tell me to not buy anymore spring water though, only distilled or R.O. since spring water doesnt use a filtration system that you are setting yourself up for possible problems.....

AE,

This is simply not true. They don't just scoop up some water from a springs and put it in a bottle. All drinking water is highly regulated. Bottled spring water simply has more natural minerals because it is not distilled (which you don't want to use for drinking anyway), nor is it a product of reverse osmosis which bottled drinking water is (thus the word "drinking").

All bottled water is purified. That's not to say it would be impossible for any product to be contaminated, even peanut butter. I don't know who bottles Krogers spring water, but here's some info on Nestles (they sell under many brand names):

==============================================================================

So you might be wondering how you can tell if your bottled water is high quality or not.

Well, we can't speak specifically for all brands of water but we can tell you that most of the bottled water in your local stores or delivered to your home or office is of good quality. Of course, there are different shades of "good." What we can speak for are the extremely high quality standards we set for bottled and spring water brands at Nestl

[Guest AutumnE]

AE,

This is simply not true. They don't just scoop up some water from a springs and put it in a bottle. All drinking water is highly regulated. Bottled spring water simply has more natural minerals because it is not distilled (which you don't want to use for drinking anyway), nor is it a product of reverse osmosis which bottled drinking water is (thus the word "drinking").

All bottled water is purified. That's not to say it would be impossible for any product to be contaminated, even peanut butter. I don't know who bottles Krogers spring water, but here's some info on Nestles (they sell under many brand names):

==============================================================================

So you might be wondering how you can tell if your bottled water is high quality or not.

Well, we can't speak specifically for all brands of water but we can tell you that most of the bottled water in your local stores or delivered to your home or office is of good quality. Of course, there are different shades of "good." What we can speak for are the extremely high quality standards we set for bottled and spring water brands at Nestl

[larry mac]

Thanks Im still nervous to drink anymore spring water though, that was hard to watch my 3 year old go through. I can handle just about anything but it broke my heart to see her that sick.

AE,

That sounds awlful, I have two girls myself (grown up). I don't buy water, I use filtered water from my refrigerator dispenser. First off, the water from the tap is safe (I know 'cause I work for the water company in the laboratory). The filter is just to improve the taste by removing the chlorine. The chlorine is mandated by law and is one thing that makes it safe by killing any bacteria.

Most bottled water is just plain old tap water that's been processed as referenced above.

best regards, lm

[corinne]

Actually, the FDA rules (which apply to bottled water) are less stringent than the EPA rules (which apply to tap water). Disinfection to kill microbes is NOT required by FDA rules for bottled water whereas it is generally required by the EPA for tap water. Many brands of bottled water, however, are disinfected, often by using UV light, and this is usually stated on the bottle. Testing for microbial contamination is required 1/week under FDA law, but is required 7-100+ times per week (depending on size of population served) under EPA regulation. The penalties for not meeting regulations are much stricter under EPA rules for tap water than under FDA rules for bottled water.

Another problem is that FDA laws only apply to water that is bottled in one state then transported across state lines and sold in another state. State laws apply to water that is bottled and sold in the same state. Some states such as California apply the FDA laws; other states have minimal regulations.

A recent large market survey of bottled water found that 10% of the bottles sampled were contaminated with E. coli.

I'd agree that spring water tastes better than tap, but it's not safer.

(I'm an environmental chemistry professor and this is part of one of the courses I teach.)

[Guest AutumnE]

Wow, thanks corinne I had no idea. My sister is dealing with water issues. They built their home last year and had the water tested last week and they found high levels of arsenic in it. They have all been drinking it for awhile now too.

I bought a dupont water filter pitcher and have been putting my tap city water in it. So far its working pretty good as alot of water makes me nauseous and this has been okay.

[larry mac]

.......

A recent large market survey of bottled water found that 10% of the bottles sampled were contaminated with E. coli.

.......

(I'm an environmental chemistry professor and this is part of one of the courses I teach.)

Corinne,

I have to say that I'm very skeptical about that statement. Could you provide a link to that survey? I'm very interested in seeing it. Based on the massive numbers of bottled water sold, millions of people would be getting sick daily if that statement were true.

Could you possibly have meant contaminated with coliform? There's a big difference. I'm not a chemist, just a laboratory technician. We do coliform/ e coli testing daily on water plant samples though.

best regards, lm

[corinne]

Larry - good catch. I quoted that from a textbook I use and I should have questioned that data (shows what happens when chemists try to do microbiology ), but I went back to the original data and 8% of the bottled water had fecal coliform contamination. That makes much more sense.

I'm still somewhat dubious about the biological safety of bottled water unless it states on the bottle that a disinfection method such as UV exposure or chlorination has been used. Tap water seems the safest bet to me.