One in five French bottled waters 'contain drugs or pesticides'

Taken From: The Guardian

Date Published: March 25th, 2013

Some of the brands the drugs and pesticides have been
found in

Summary: It is said that the average French water is cleaner, healthier, and purer than others. But a recent investigation found traces of pesticides and prescription drugs. Including a drug that is used to treat breast cancer. The investigation showed every one in five bottled water sold contains pesticides or drugs. The investigation included looking at 47 brands of bottled water sold in France. They discovered that around 10 of the brands contained residue from drugs or pesticides. 

"The biggest surprise was the presence of tamoxifen, a synthetic hormone used in the treatment of breast cancer," the magazine said.

It is a popular and powerful prescription drug used to treat breast cancer. It was found in 4 of the 10 brands. Other traces of prescription drugs including buflomedil and naftidrolfuryl were found in the other 6 brands. They are prescription drugs used to dilate arteries, for those with high blood pressure. The results were later contested by the water companies. The tests were run again a second time, to find the same results.

Opinion: I think it's very important that water bottling companies check for stuff that shouldn't be in their water. They are sending the water out for thousands of people to drink. Even if the amount is minuscule  i still think it is important for the water companies to check. They are putting other people's lives at risk, because they were not careful. I think they should question how they got the drug in the first place. Then they should work on, maybe, implementing better filtering technologies to make sure unwanted particles do not get into the water.