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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
At least 25 people in two states were likely poisoned by toxic batches of the "Re2al ," including five children who suffered acute liver failure and one person who died.
The toxic water made headlines earlier this year when health investigators initially linked alkalized water sold by Nevada-based water company Real Water to severe illnesses in five children in Clark County, Nevada. But the new report from the CDC offers the most complete look at the identified cases and illnesses.
The saga began in November and December of 2020, when the five children—ranging in age from seven months to five years—became severely ill with acute liver failure after drinking the water. They were hospitalized and later transferred to a children's hospital for a potential liver transplant—though they all subsequently recovered without a transplant. Local health officials investigating the unusual cluster found that family members had also been sickened. The only common link between the cases was the alkalized water, which Real Water claimed was a healthier alternative to tap water.
In mid-March, the Food and Drug Administration contacted Real Water about the cases and urged the company to recall their water, which was sold in multiple states, including Nevada, California, Utah, and Arizona. Real Water agreed to issue the recall. However, by the end of the month, the FDA reported that retailers were still selling the potentially dangerous water, and the regulator tried to warn consumers directly. By then, Nevada health officials had linked the water to six additional cases, including three more children, bringing the total to 11.
Now, according to the new report, the tally has increased to 25: 18 probable cases and four suspected cases in Nevada, as well as three probable cases in California.
All 21 probable cases ended up hospitalized, and 18 required intensive care. One woman in her 60s with underlying medical conditions died of complications from her liver inflammation.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday November 21 2021, @03:26PM (12 children)
Anybody with high-school-level knowledge of chemistry should immediately think "drain cleaner" when hearing "alkali", thereby at least researching what's in that water before drinking it. But basic science education in the US is pathetic and getting worse, and American tend to be gullible anyway. So... not really a surprise.
(Score: 5, Informative) by deimtee on Sunday November 21 2021, @04:58PM (3 children)
Last time this came up I found a picture of the label that included the ingredients list. There was nothing on it that would damage the liver, even if they had mistakenly added 10 times what it said on the label. There had to be contaminants in it.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Sunday November 21 2021, @06:33PM
The contaminants could be disease causing organisms.
While the initial reports said 'non-viral' hepatitis [fda.gov], there's plenty of other waterborne diseases that can cause hepatitis before you start looking at chemical toxins - look at the list under 'Bacterial hepatitis' 'and 'Parasitic hepatitis'' at this Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis#Infectious. [wikipedia.org]
Also, the product can be contaminated with chemicals that are not labelled on the ingredients - just like the Mexican originated hand-sanitizer contaminated with methanol [fda.gov].
(Score: 2, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday November 21 2021, @07:52PM
Some times too much of a good thing can be deadly too. There are recorded cases of people being killed from drinking too much pure water at once, the water thinned out the electrolytes in their blood and caused cells to burst when they tried to absorb enough H2O to balance. Like putting too much air in a balloon.
That said I'm with you on it being a contaminate of some kind, it explains the small number of cases relative to the number of bottles in the production run.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by drussell on Sunday November 21 2021, @08:48PM
Indeed... The problem was not the fact that the water was alkaline due to added potassium bicarbonate, it is that the water was contaminated with something that caused hepatitis.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday November 21 2021, @07:31PM
and If they had really paid attention they might also think "baking soda" when hearing "alkali"
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday November 21 2021, @09:33PM (2 children)
The first thing that came to my mind was baking soda, raises alkalinity without being poisonous. Lye? That just sounds stupid.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 4, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday November 22 2021, @02:33AM (1 child)
Surprisingly there is food grade Lye available. It has it's place in the serious kitchen, cureing fresh picked olives and making pretzels are two that I know off the top of my head. When picked olives are loaded with Oleuropein [wikipedia.org] making them too bitter to eat so they spend about 2 weeks in a lye bath to leech it out and neutralize it. And professional bakeries will give pretzels a quick dip in a lye solution before baking to give them their distinctive crust. However it is recommended the average home baker use a hot baking soda solution for making pretzels due being safer but the results are not as impressive.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 22 2021, @03:05PM
Lutefisk. Fing disgusting, but I suppose if you're hungry enough anything is edible. So if salt is precious but you got lots of wood ash, you can use lye to "cure" raw fish the same way civilized people would have used salt.
You'd think pH screwing around would ruin the proteins and stuff but apparently it does not. Lutefisk is, to me, very smelly kind of like Vietnamese or Roman fish sauce. I've never tried roman fish sauce but I really have no desire to so thats OK.
Now if you make a spicy beer batter and deep fry it and drink lots of beer to avoid the lutefisk, then the batter and beer taste nice. But not the lutefisk.
Its the kind of food you'll find if you hear a kantele (its a musical stringed instrument from Finland)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Monday November 22 2021, @06:50AM (3 children)
Anyone with a high-school knowledge of science should immediately think "woo-woo" when hearing "healthier alternative to tap water".
And since woo-woo is unregulated, there's always the danger of god-knows-what being present in the woo-woo.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday November 22 2021, @07:31AM
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/americas-tap-water-samples-forever-chemicals
https://www.science.org/content/article/millions-americans-drink-potentially-unsafe-tap-water-how-does-your-county-stack
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 22 2021, @11:41AM (1 child)
Some people say they have hard water at the tap.
I consider it mineral water.
I am designed to ingest water as commonly available for millions of years, with water coming through sand filters thousands of feet thick ( well and spring water ) being the best.
Those who want to sell me pills will do their damnedest to convince me their minerals are better.
Hint...do not drink distilled water. It's pure. But it's not good for you
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 22 2021, @03:11PM
Its an urban legend. Your body can't tell if you drink it with food (food has overwhelmingly more minerals than even mineral water, so playing games deep in the decimal places can't have any effect).
I would give you a pass if you drink it while fasting and peeing out minerals ... in the very long run that might be an issue.
In a way, carbs are just water plus binder in a chemical sense, so as a form of "concentrated water" if you eat carbs you're probably eating a higher concentration of all kinds of interesting minerals you'd have had in the water that originally grew the plants... Usually good, although some concentrated "stuff" in plants is quite unhealthy. And meat is just a processed higher quality food based on plants, so that goes for meat too. Lots more iron in a burger patty than in many glasses of (normal-ish) water.