Federal authorities have ordered a complete recall of Las
Vegas-based bottled water brand Real Water and ordered the company to surrender
records in investigations of at least one death and multiple cases of liver
illness among people who reported drinking it.
Brent Jones, company president, and attorneys for the company
and the bottler, AffinityLifestyles.com Inc., did not immediately respond
Friday to email messages about a U.S. District Court order issued Wednesday.
The order stopped the production and distribution of the product marketed
primarily in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California.
Jones and the company did not contest the order, called a
consent decree, or admit wrongdoing pending further hearings. Telephone numbers
for Jones and the company were no longer in service.
The product is sold as premium alkalized drinking water in
distinctive boxy blue bottles touting “E2 Electron Energized Technology.”
Labels say it is “infused with negative ions” and offers healthy detoxifying
properties.
The federal complaint refers to the product brand as “Re2al
Water Drinking Water.” It alleges the “manufacture and distribution of
adulterated and/or misbranded bottled drinking water and chemical concentrate”
that “may have been rendered injurious to health.”
The consent decree requires the company to recall and destroy
all its product produced before Wednesday; to turn over to the FDA records
about processing, bottling and distribution; and to submit to unannounced
inspections of company facilities in Las Vegas, suburban Henderson, Nevada, and
Mesa, Arizona.
The company is committed to paying the cost of FDA activities at
a rate of more than $100 per hour, and it must notify the agency before any
change of ownership, reorganization or bankruptcy.
Documents say the commercial product is drawn from the Las
Vegas-area municipal water supply, filtered and processed with potassium
hydroxide, commonly called lye, the chemical potassium bicarbonate and a
mineral salt, magnesium chloride.
“Defendants claim to use a proprietary ‘ionizer’ apparatus to
apply an electrical current to this mixture, which allegedly creates positively
charged and negatively charged solutions,” the federal civil complaint says.
It says the negatively charged solution is marketed as “E2
Concentrate” taste-enhancer for coffee, tea and wine — and diluted in tanks and
packaged for home delivery and commercial sales as “alkaline” Real Water.
The Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Health District on Thursday
reported five more cases of liver illness believed to be linked to Real Water,
including the death of a Clark County woman in her 60s who had underlying
medical conditions.
The report brought to 16 the number of acute non-viral
hepatitis cases tied by the district to the product.
The federal complaint refers to the product brand as “Re2al
Water Drinking Water.” It alleges the “manufacture and distribution of
adulterated and/or misbranded bottled drinking water and chemical concentrate”
that “may have been rendered injurious to health.”
The consent decree requires the company to recall and destroy
all its product produced before Wednesday; to turn over to the FDA records
about processing, bottling and distribution; and to submit to unannounced
inspections of company facilities in Las Vegas, suburban Henderson, Nevada, and
Mesa, Arizona.
The company is committed to paying the cost of FDA activities at
a rate of more than $100 per hour, and it must notify the agency before any
change of ownership, reorganization or bankruptcy.
Documents say the commercial product is drawn from the Las
Vegas-area municipal water supply, filtered and processed with potassium
hydroxide, commonly called lye, the chemical potassium bicarbonate and a
mineral salt, magnesium chloride.
“Defendants claim to use a proprietary ‘ionizer’ apparatus to
apply an electrical current to this mixture, which allegedly creates positively
charged and negatively charged solutions,” the federal civil complaint says.
It says the negatively charged solution is marketed as “E2
Concentrate” taste-enhancer for coffee, tea and wine — and diluted in tanks and
packaged for home delivery and commercial sales as “alkaline” Real Water.
The Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Health District on Thursday
reported five more cases of liver illness believed to be linked to Real Water,
including the death of a Clark County woman in her 60s who had underlying
medical conditions. The report brought to 16 the number of acute non-viral
hepatitis cases tied by the district to the product.
(Written by Associated Press writer Ken Ritter.)