Media Warns Against “Raw Water” Trend

An increasing number of companies are selling “raw water,” or “unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water,” according to the New York Times. The companies target consumers seeking to leave the country’s water infrastructure over concerns about treatments the water undergoes and the lead pipes that sometimes carry it to its destinations. One “water consciousness movement” start-up offers “fluoride-free,” “chlorine-free” and “mineral electrolyte alkaline” options, while another sells a system that pulls moisture from the air to collect water. The founder of Live Water, which sells 2.5-gallon jugs of raw water for about $37 each, told the Times that “real water” should expire: “It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery,” he is quoted as saying. “If it sits around too long, it’ll turn green. People don’t even realize that because all their water’s dead, so they never see it turn green.”

“By convincing people to drink untreated water, the proponents of the raw water craze are threatening to undo one of the great public health and sanitation achievements in U.S. history—with a significant risk to public health,” an op-ed in the Washington Post asserts. Levels of waterborne bacteria, viruses, parasites and carcinogenic compounds in tap and bottled water are regulated by states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but raw-water companies have received exemptions from states allowing them to sell their water untreated. The Post op-ed documents the role that water treatment played in combating cholera, while the Times spoke to a doctor with the Mayo Clinic who expressed concern about E.coli, viruses and parasites in untreated water. “Without water treatment, there’s acute and then chronic risks,” the doctor is quoted as saying. “There’s evidence all over the world of this, and the reason we don’t have those conditions is because of our very efficient water treatment.”