ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has found bottled water of eight brands unsafe, however, it okayed 63 other brands.
The government laboratory found that eight brands of bottled water are selling unsafe water for human consumption due to chemical and microbiological contamination.
According to the report for the quarter January-March, 2015, the PCRWR collected 71 samples of mineral/bottled water brands from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Tando Jam, Lahore, Quetta, Sialkot and Karachi. Comparison of analytical findings with permissible limits of Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) revealed that eight brands, including Al-Haider, Noble, Drop Ice, Al-Sana, Days Pure, Effort, Aqua Safe and Butt were found to be unsafe due to chemical or microbiological contamination.
Out of those 08 unsafe brands, 03 brands (Al-Sana, Aqua Safe & Days Pure) have comparatively high level of Arsenic ranging from 11-35 ppb than PSQCA water quality standard for arsenic (10 ppb).The excessive level of arsenic can cause various types of skin diseases, diabetes, kidney diseases, hypertension, heart diseases birth defects, black foot diseases and multiple types of cancers etc.
Whereas, three brands, including Drop Ice, Effort & Butt, were found to be unsafe due to microbiological contamination which may cause cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid etc. The remaining brands were found unsafe due to the presence of higher levels of sodium and potassium.
