The crime branch of Gurgaon police has busted a gang which used to supply fake mineral water bottles that were being sold under Pepsico India Ltd’s brand name, Aquafina. Police have arrested seven persons in this connection and four vehicles loaded with fake bottled water, wrappers and duplicate bottles have been seized.
An FIR has been lodged under Sections 420/467/468 of the IPC and the Copyright Act at the Badshapur police station. According to police, officials from Pepsico India Ltd met police officers and gave a complaint against some people who were running a plant of fake bottled water and selling them under their company’s name. A crime branch team of Sector 46 police then conducted raids at Samaspur, Vajirabad and Islampur village, where the accused were filling borewell water into the fake bottles and supplying them throughout the city.”
“Supermarkets are selling bottled tap water to millions of unsuspecting customers.
Bottles of Tesco ‘Everyday Value Still Water’ and Asda ‘Smartprice Still Water’ are sitting on shelves alongside big brands of mineral water such as Evian and Perrier.
However, there is no explanation on the label of these supermarket brands that the contents are simply tap water.
On the face of it, the supermarket water, which costs 17p for a two-litre bottle, offers remarkable value compared with the big brands. In reality it is no more than a filtered version of the mains water that comes out of the tap at a cost of just a third of a penny a litre.
This means the supermarkets and their suppliers are enjoying a mark-up of around 2,500 per cent for filtering the water – something the mains suppliers say is unnecessary. They then put it into plastic bottles and ship it to thousands of stores across the country.
In pursuit of his millionaire dreams, Del came up with the idea of bottling tap water and selling it as the exclusive ‘Peckham Spring’. Just as Del Boy failed to mention the tap water origins of Peckham Spring, so Tesco and Asda have left this important detail off their labels.
Tesco sells the filtered mains water under the name of Everyday Value Still Water which can be bought in a two-litre bottle for 17p or six 500ml bottles for £1. On the label it says ‘Just water, nothing added’. There is a carbonated version which also sells for 17p.”
In an earlier post on Nuclear Radiation in Japan, I wondered whether we know how to treat Radioactive water.
I have found some information.
Certain rock types naturally contain radioactive elements referred to as NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials). When a source of drinking water comes in contact with NORM-bearing rocks, radionuclides may accumulate in the water to levels of concern. The predominant radionuclides found in water include:
As water is treated to remove impurities, radionuclides may collect and eventually build up in filters, tanks, and pipes at treatment plants. The small amounts of NORM present in the source water may concentrate in sediment or sludges. Because the NORM is concentrated due to human activity, it is classified as TENORM (Technologically Enhanced Radioactive Material). Most of this waste is disposed in landfills and lagoons, or is applied to agricultural fields.
Most drinking water treatment sludges are thought to contain radium (Ra-226) levels comparable to typical concentrations in soils. However, some water supply systems, primarily those relying on groundwater sources, may generate sludge with much higher Ra-226 levels. Furthermore, some water treatment systems are more effective than others in removing naturally-occurring radionuclides from the water.
The table below lists the current radionuclide standards for drinking water.
a) Radioactive contamination of drinking water in Japan at this point in time can come about in only two ways:
1) The source is actual surface water like lakes or rivers, possibly filtratedthrough river banks and thus came into contact with e.g. radioactive rain and/or dust. The Netherlands rely almost totally on water drawn from the Rhine and fed into the drinking water supply after conditioning.
2) The water may have been contaminated after production (e.g. in open cisterns/basins), which in effect is similar to bullet a1).
In all other cases it springs from groundwater (wells) and has often been concealed for years before being extracted again. As limnologists would say “groundwater” has an elephant’s memory, i.e. if you drop a can of used oil in a forest it may take ten years until you become aware of oil traces in your drinking water. This means that on one hand ground water wells should as a rule not yet show contamination from rain fall so shortly after a nuclear accident and on the other hand that when it appears further “down the road” all short-lived contamination should have decayed. This is by no means meant to downplay the issue.
So far I would have thought it unlikely to already find radioactive contamination in water that does not come from surface water or bank filtrate. If it should be true it would be alarming.
Now though, let’s assume it were true as authorities would rather hush up things than exaggerate them, thus let’s take some degree of water contamination for granted.
b) How can you reprocess radioactively contaminated (drinking) water so that it is (relatively) safe to use?
1) It is in the form of radioactive hydrogen (called tritium, three times as heavy as normal hydrogen and emitting very weak beta rays, i.e. electrons, which, however, can damage yourgenome and cause cancer etc. when swallowed). When tritium has been released to the environment it will be incorporated in “heavy” water molecules. However, these are chemically indistinct from normal water, hence you cannot chemically separate radioactive water from normal water. You will have to live with tritium in your water and air (vapour) until it has decayed. With a half-life of approx. 12 years it will be down to one thousandth in about 120 years … All you can do (in theory) is move to another location where the tritium from “your” power plant has not yet reached (eventually the tritium will be evenly dispersed world-wide by wind and wave, however, then also the dosage of radiation will diminish reciprocally with its dilution). Or you “import” clean water (and add a pressurised air cylinder from a clean pristine source for good measure).
And don’t forget: once you’ve moved to another place there might be yet another malfunctioning nuclear power station around the corner – from the frypan into the fire … Help close down all nuclear power stations and so-called reprocessing plants!
2) The water could contain gases, esp. radioactive noble gases (like neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), radon (Rn)) Rather unlikely but for the sake of completeness we will mention them here. These can be driven out from the water by heating it to boiling temperature as hot liquids dissolve less gases than cold ones (with solid solubles, e.g. salts, it is vice versa with the rare exception of kitchen salt –sodium chloride- which hardly changes in solubility from almost zero to 100 degrees centigrade).
3) The main contaminants by far should be soluble solids, e.g. metal salts of e.g. radioactive caesium, rubidium etc.These can not be filtered e.g. by charcoal or any ceramic or paper filter with whatever fine pore structure since they are dissolved! You can only either try to demineralise that water (e.g. by reverse osmosis) or purify it by distillation thus leaving the radioactive solids behind (the condensed water in the lids of your pots consists of such distilled water droplets). A third potential method would be chemical precipitation. However, in order to know which chemical to use to precipitate the contaminant(s) with, you’d first have to analyse the water components. And in all probability the traces would be too small for normal analysis and if the salt etc. was determined then you might find there is noprecipitant to go with it or it may have adverse side effects, e.g. be poisonous. So de-mineralisation or distillation it is.
While activated charcoal does by virtue of adsorption delay the passage even of solved saltsall these filtration methods are only really designed for capturing suspended matter. But what has been bank filtrated or springs from ground water wells is not a suspension, or at least no water utility would dare inject murky water into its system!!!
Can you still use contaminated water for the following purposes (keep in mind, it is always a matter of how contaminated it all is!):
> – cleaning a garden path for example,
Yes, but may I suggest: only if the path would be less contaminated than before. But before you breathe contaminated dust from a contaminated path by all means use contaminated water to keep it in place! This is what is already done at Fukushima – they spray water not only for cooling purposes but also to keep the contaminated dust or radioactice debris wet and in place!
> – personal hygiene,
Rather not! You would also absorb some contaminants through your skin, however small. However, if you need to decontaminate yourself from a greater dose than what is in your water, do wash it all down and reduce your exposure! Again – “contaminated” water may be heavily or only negligibly contaminated – use your best judgment! We are talking dangerously contaminated here! The situation in your region may not yet be so dire – so please compare to normal radiation levels from the past – traces of radioactivity may not always be dangerous, but are likely to rise with ongoing leaks and further rainfall adding to ground water supplies from contaminated sources above ground:
Water is an incredibly important to the existence of life on earth. We humans use it for a number of activities in our day-today life. We drink, cook, wash, bathe, and clean all with the help of water. However, even with all of the importance water holds in our lives, many of us know very little about the water we use each day.
All of us know that drinking impure, contaminated water will invite a host of diseases. Hence it is must for us to drink pure water. Further, we assume that bottled water is the purest form of water since it is hygienically prepared and sealed to avoid impurities. The $60 billion global bottled water industry has shown tremendous growth in the recent years. Advertising for bottled water suggests that drinking water in plastic can make you thin, sexy, healthy, affluent, and environmentally responsible. Water bottles have become a fashion accessory. Think again!
It is actually the other way round. Drinking from plastic bottled water is not only damaging to you but also to the environment. Here are some myths about bottled water:
It is safe: Many people think bottled water is safer than tap water. There is no such guarantee. A man reported getting sick from drinking bottled water because it had high levels of coliform bacteria in it. A study revealed that most bottled water is roughly equivalent to tap water in terms of germs and chemical makeup. Another study determined that at least 25 percent of bottled water (including top brands) is actually filtered tap water.
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It is healthy and taste better: Vitamins, minerals, herbs, protein and all the other additions to water are really nothing but a marketing ploy. Enhanced waters usually contain sugars and artificial flavorings to sweeten the deal.
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It’s pure: The labels on many bottles have the words “natural” and “pure” on them can be misleading. Ahmedabad based Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) conducted a detailed study on the 13 major brands of bottled water and found that as many as 10 brands had foreign floating objects in clear violation of norms. The study also found that none of the brands was free from bacteria (not of the harmful kind), and two of the big brands contained toxic heavy metals much higher than permitted levels.
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It is dangerous to the environment: Every year about 1.5 million tons of plastic go into manufacturing water bottles for the global market, using processes that release toxics such as nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. These bottles are composed of a plastic called polyethylene terepthalate (PET), which can take as long as 400 to 1000 years to degrade. In addition, more than 80 percent of the PET water bottles are tossed in the trash instead of being recycled. Besides landfills, many bottles end up in oceans, posing a risk to marine life. Furthermore, the manufacturing and shipping of bottles means extra carbon emissions.
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It impacts the water resources: Bottled spring water is taken from water that flows naturally to the surface of the earth from an underground formation. Thus there is reduction in the underground water resource. Sometimes, bottled water comes from the glaciers which is even more damaging to the environment. Moreover, during filtration, it is estimated that two liters of water are wasted for every single liter that is purified.
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Hidden cost: We use more than 17 million barrels of oil to make plastic bottles. This could generate electricity for more than 2.5 million homes or fuel 1 million cars for a year. Ans this doesn’t include the fuel required to transport the bottles. We are literally drinking up oil in our quest for clean water.
What should I do?
* Fit a water purifier in your house; drinking filtered water is a much more economical practice than drinking bottled water.
* Choose tap water over bottled water whenever possible.
* Use a refillable bottle with tap water.
* Don’t use plastic bottles.
* Convince other to do the same.
So now that you know there is no actual difference between bottled water and regular one, head to your tap and have a sip. If you want to drink water that is 100% pure and provides a healthy lifestyle for you and your family, get a good purifier system. All that you need to do is a touch more research and you may find a tap water filtration system that will save the environment and your wallet. It’s now up to you.
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