SB 220 ( Corbett) - Bottled & Vended Water Right To Know
Contact: Darby Kernan 916-651-4010
Consumers have a right and a need to know that the water they drink is safe. While agencies that provide tap water are required to disclose consumer protection information, bottled and vended water sources have no similar requirements.
SB 220 provides the information that consumers need to know to protect their health and the health of their families by:
- Requiring inspections and regular maintenance of vended water facilities and generating fee revenue to administer regulatory oversight;
- Providing for clear labeling of vended water machines that includes a toll-free telephone number that customers can call to obtain more information and the toll-free telephone number for the DPS food and drug branch.
- S tandardizing the water quality right-to-know information for bottled and tap water by allowing consumers to obtain understandable water quality information;
- Providing that a bottled water label must identify the source of the water and provide information so that consumers can obtain current water quality information.
Nearly 70 percent of all Californians consume some or all of their drinking water from bottled water sources . Under current law and existing regulations, consumers have no way of knowing if the bottled water they drink contains contaminants such as arsenic (a known carcinogen), pesticides (often neurotoxic), disinfection by-products or perchlorate (all harmful to pregnant women) in concentrations that may affect their health.
Many people consume bottled water for health reasons. Pregnant women, infants and children, the elderly, people with AIDS or HIV, those undergoing chemotherapy and others with compromised immune systems regularly rely on bottled water under the belief that it is safer and more pure than tap water. Low-income people (especially Latinos and other immigrant populations) spend well beyond their means to purchase bottled and vended water products. People rely on bottled and vended water for their drinking water because they live in areas that have actual or perceived problems with tap or well water.
Bottled water quality information is not consistently made available to consumers. In fact, the only way to obtain this information from most bottlers is to file a public records act request with the Department of Health Services Food and Drug Branch.
Many vended water facilities fail to meet state health and consumer protection standards as a result of insufficient routine monitoring. Current regulations do not require regular inspections of vended water facilities; in fact, current staffing for this section of the Food and Drug Branch is so inadequate that licensees could wait 20 years before they are ever inspected. Problems are only investigated on a complaint basis. This is not the kind of protection that we expect or deserve from our government.
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