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Vended Water Flunks Tests
By Lisa Mascaro
Staff Writer December 11, 2002
Water sold in vending machines near supermarkets by the largest seller in California fails to meet state standards one-third of the time and falls short of claims of being 97 percent contaminant-free, says a report being released today. The first study of its kind by the Environmental Working Group and Environmental Law Foundation analyzed water from machines operated by San Diego County-based Glacier Water Services Inc. It mirrors findings on vending machine water by Los Angeles County. Today's study found that water from one-third of the Glacier machines tested exceeded the state health standard for contaminants that have been linked to increased cancer risk and birth defects if consumed above certain levels. More than two-thirds fell short of the company's claim that the machines remove 97 percent of the contaminants. In Los Angeles County, one in four Glacier machines tested sold water exceeding the state standard, and 54 percent failed to meet the claim of reducing contaminants by 97 percent, the report said. Glacier Water is the state's biggest operator of water-vending machines. The company operates more than 7,000 machines in California and more than 14,000 nationwide
"Despite state regulations meant to ensure that all vended water meets stringent health standards, buying water from a machine in California is like playing a slot machine: You can't be sure what will come out," according to the report. "It's very clear from our findings that the inflated prices that consumers in California pay for water is a rip-off," said Bill Walker, a co-author of the report. "You can't just go around making claims for your product you can't meet," he said. "They should either improve their process so they do get rid of 97 percent of contaminants in tap water or they should have to stop making that marketing claim."
The law foundation plans to file suit today against Glacier, seeking to label the machines as substandard and to shut down any machine that fails to meet the state's standard of 10 parts per billion. A statement from the company said the machines sampled for the study met federal Environmental Protection Agency standards for safe drinking water. "To ensure the public's safety, we complete over 49,000 tests each year through independent third party EPA certified laboratories," the statement read. "Put simply, Glacier Water provides safe, great-tasting, high-quality drinking water."
In 1998 the company had called for an inspection program after a Los Angeles County study found widespread failure among vending companies to meet state health standards, according to the report.
Today's report is the first statewide study of its kind targeting trihalomenthanes (THMs), a class of chemicals that are byproducts of treating water with chlorine. State law says vended water must not exceed 10 parts per billion.
Research has found associations between increased risk of multiple types of cancer, miscarriages and birth defects and consumption of water that has THMs levels even below the federal standard of 80 ppb. The study found that the level of contaminants varied dramatically at machines statewide. Four percent of the company's machines were tested.
However, the report said the state Department of Health Services has known the water from the company's machines violated standards, but did little to fix the problem "The state has known about Glacier's failure to meet THM standards for years but has taken no meaningful action," said the report, titled "Is Water from Vending Machines Really 'Chemical Free'?"
A DHS spokeswoman said the water is safe to drink, but that the department would be doing additional studies. "This is not a health issue, it is a truth-in-advertising issue," said Health Department spokeswoman Lea Brooks. Brooks said Glacier passed inspections in 1999 and earlier this year for bacteria levels, but that the state does not test for THMs. "As a result of the report we will do some testing and meet with the company to discuss our findings," she said.
Glacier is the state's largest seller of vended water, marketing primarily to immigrant customers who might not trust tap water, according to the Environmental Working Group. Vending machine water costs 20-35 cents a gallon -- cheaper than the $1 per gallon cost of store-purchased bottled water, but more expensive than the 0.2-cent-a-gallon cost of tap water. Vended water is typically ordinary tap water that is filtered and treated as it passes through the machine, the report said.
The environmental groups conducted the tests last summer, sampling water from 274 vending machines in nine California counties. The samples were analyzed by Los Angeles County's Environmental Toxicology Bureau.
"I'm glad that this report really confirmed what we did before in Los Angeles County," said Wasfy Shindy, the lab's director and a deputy director in the county Agricultural Commissioner's Office.
"The state of California, they know all along what is going on and they did nothing about it," he said. "The state has to have a better supervision, they have to test the machine themselves."
He adds that the issue is not the potential for health problems, but simply that consumers aren't getting what they're paying for.
"It is really that the consumer pays money to get better water than the tap water and they are not getting better water than the tap water," he said.
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