Carcinogen Found in 5-Gallon Plastic Water Bottles : Water in 5-Gallon Plastic Bottles Yields Carcinogen

Minute amounts of a cancer-causing chemical have been found in drinking water bottled in five-gallon plastic containers, studies by the bottled water industry and the state Department of Health Services have found.

The concentrations of methylene chloride in the bottled water are not believed to pose an imminent health risk, state officials said Thursday.

So far, only the five-gallon plastic water bottles--the type carried on home-delivery trucks--are under review. Smaller containers, such as the 1- and 2 1/2-gallon bottles sold in stores, are made of a different kind of plastic.

Health and industry officials are trying to determine whether it will be necessary to replace the estimated 5 million five-gallon bottles in use in California. Plastic bottles have been in use throughout the United States since the mid-1970s when they replaced glass bottles.

“I think this is a surprise. I imagine this came as a surprise to (the industry),” state Health Director Kenneth Kizer said in a telephone interview. “We don’t view this as an imminent health danger. I think that, obviously, we are concerned about it.”

Studies since mid-May by both the state Health Services Department and the industry detected concentrations of methylene chloride ranging between four to 10 parts per billion in water that had been stored in the plastic bottles for 14 days, and up to 30 parts per billion in water stored for 40 days.

One part per billion is equivalent to one drop of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool. The state recommends that concentrations of methylene chloride in drinking water should not exceed 40 parts per billion in drinking water.

The plastic bottles are made of a polycarbonate resin, which contains methylene chloride. In the mid-1970s when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of plastic containers for water, questions were raised about leaching of the plastic ingredients into the water. But at the time no health problems were anticipated.

Industry officials have told the state that they do not know how quickly the bottles could be replaced. The polycarbonate bottles have a service life of about three years and cost $8 to $10 each.

Officials said they were told that there are only six plastic bottle manufacturers in the United States--two of them in California--and that they would be hard-pressed to immediately supply replacement containers.

“Their intent is to accelerate the (replacement) as fast as they can,” said Stuart Richardson, chief of the Health Service Department’s food and drug branch. “There is no mechanical way to replace them faster.”

Although the state said the concentrations pose no immediate health threat, both state and industry officials said the disclosure could pose a problem in the marketplace. The bottled water industry has been enjoying rapid growth, in large part because of widespread public concern about tap water amid repeated disclosures of contaminated water wells serving municipal and private water systems.

The International Bottle Water Assn., headquartered in Alexandria, Va., has estimated that one of every 16 Americans uses bottled water as the primary source of drinking water. In California, the association said, the figure is one in six and in Southern California it is one in three.

One bottled water company executive quickly offered assurances about its product when asked to comment about the findings.

“As far as we know and to this date we still state that our product and packaging meet all the standards of both California and the federal government and we stand behind our product,” said Arnie Allan, vice president of marketing and new products at Sparkletts Drinking Water Corp. “We are well below any limit established for (methylene chloride). We’re well below the levels found in decaffeinated coffee.”

He noted that methylene chloride is found in food products. But, its presence in public drinking water systems is relatively rare.