SALT LAKE CITY – An alkaline water company with a bottling plant in Utah issued a voluntary recall of its water after suspected links to non-viral hepatitis cases reported in Nevada last year, state and federal officials said.
Real Water, Inc., based in Arizona and Nevada, recalled 1 and 1 ½ liter bottles, as well as 500 milliliter bottles of water that were distributed throughout the United States, including Utah, through Amazon, according to Utah. Department of Agriculture and Food.
The company also sells 3 and 5 liter bottles for home and office delivery and 4 ounces of Real Water Concentrate, which was available for delivery or over the internet, according to the secretariat.
The Food and Drug Administration reported last week that 3 and 5 gallon bottles of water were distributed to Utah. He confirmed that 5-gallon containers were distributed in St. George through Real Water Southern Utah.
Utah officials said the company’s products were embargoed due to the recall. They said that anyone who may have recalled products “should discard them immediately and not drink or cook with them”.
“Distributors were notified of the recall and instructed to immediately remove products collected from all store shelves, distribution and other inventory to ensure that they are no longer available for sale or consumption,” the agency continued in a statement Thursday. market.
In an update on Wednesday, FDA officials said the agency was working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the South Nevada Sanitary District on “a series of reports” on associated non-viral acute hepatitis in Nevada to the “Real Water” of the alkaline water company.
“The FDA has learned that ‘Real Water’ brand alkaline water is still being offered for sale through online retailers. The agency is working to locate all of the remaining products to ensure that they are no longer available to consumers.” , FDA officials wrote on Wednesday. “The FDA will continue to monitor this situation closely and monitor retailers as we become aware of the collected products that are being offered for sale.”
The agency added that, due to Real Water’s “lack of cooperation”, they have not yet completed investigations of Real Water’s facilities in Henderson, Nevada, and Mesa, Arizona. Officials posted on March 24 that the agency issued a “Demand for Records” under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act as a result.
The FDA first posted on Real Water on March 16, three days after it reported that the agency had been alerted to five cases of non-viral hepatitis, resulting in liver failure in babies and children in the Southern Nevada Health District. All five were hospitalized and recovered. The authorities said that the consumption of alkaline water Real Water was “the only common link identified among all these cases so far”.
More possible cases have emerged. The Associated Press reported last week that there have been several lawsuits filed against the company for diseases linked to Real Water. A lawsuit was filed by a Nevada man who claimed the product led to the need for a liver transplant in 2019.
Symptoms of non-viral hepatitis include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, gray or clay bowel movements, joint pain, yellow eyes and jaundice, according to the Department of Agriculture and Food . This can lead to serious illnesses and the department has recommended that anyone with these symptoms contact the doctor.
Although based primarily in Arizona and Nevada, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food officials said Real Water has a bottling facility in Hildale, Washington County. The company posted a video message from the company’s founder and president, Brent Jones, on March 23.
In it, Jones apologized to customers for concerns about the safety of the company’s water products. He said it appeared that the contaminated water occurrences were linked to home and office delivery in Las Vegas and that the company issued a voluntary recall across the country as a precautionary measure.
“We started Real Water more than 13 years ago with the intention of providing a health product that benefits and elevates people’s lifestyles,” he said in the video. “We are deeply saddened to know that anything else can be the result.”