Source: The News
Date: July 21, 2010
ISLAMABAD: As many as 19 brands of bottled/mineral water out of a total 66 available in the market have been found unsafe by a government agency for human consumption as these contain chemicals.
The Ministry of Science and Technology’s Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) announced its findings after conducting a scientific analysis of samples of bottled water collected from 11 major cities, a copy of the analysis available with The News revealed.
The scientific analysis was conducted by ISO-17025 accredited National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) in Islamabad for physico-chemicals and microbiological parameters.
In all, 47 brands were safe, the percentage was 71, 19 unsafe brands formed 29 percentage, 48 brands were chemically safe, 18 were chemically unsafe, 65 were microbiologically safe, 01 was microbiologically unsafe, while 30 brands were found consistent in market.
PCRWR Chairman Dr Muhammad Aslam Tahir, when contacted, pointed out that quite interestingly, as many as 33 brands disappeared from the market after they were identified as unsafe earlier. “It is not clear whether they have come up with a new name and improved quality or not. Moreover, 36 new brands have surfaced,” he noted.
Samples of 66 commercially available brands were collected from 11 cities of the four provinces of Pakistan. These samples were collected by the PCRWR head office and regional offices from April to June 2010. A set of four bottles of each brand was collected and sealed on site. Identification codes were allotted to all the brands according to the PCRWR Bottled Water Classification System.
The brands that were found unsafe (chemically) are: Coozy, So Safe, Alfa, Golden, Pak Crystal, Light Water, Nation, Taiba, Fairmount, Omni, Niamat, Aqua National, Pacific, Lock, Pan Pura, Clear, Fine Soul and Unique water, whereas Hunza bottled water was found chemically safe but was unsafe microbiologically.
For more information : http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=30204
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