Officials Warn of Contaminated 3 or 5 Gallon Poland Spring Water - FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports

Consumers who purchased 3 or 5 gallon Poland Spring bottles since November 1, 2012 are urged to check for potentially contaminated bottles.

According to a press release, clean water is odorless and should not have any chemical smell.       

The bottles may have become contaminated after Super Storm Sandy struck the eastern seaboard when residents in N.Y., N.J., and Conn. used some of the empty water bottles to transport gasoline.

The press release says that in the past 3 months, bottled water companies have detected and stopped the reuse of any bottles found to contain gasoline residue or fumes.

However, a small number of contaminated bottles are believed to have made it through the detection process. Officials say any exposure levels are not likely to result in long-term health effects.

Officials say if you should find a bottle with an odor you shouldn't drink the water and call  your  bottled  water provider to make arrangements to get a replacement. If you have health concerns contact your health care provider.

Bottled water that is not in a 3 or 5 gallon container is not affected by this issue.

Statement from Poland Springs:

"Amid fuel shortages following Hurricane Sandy, media reports indicated that some people were using containers such as large water bottles to transport gasoline. This is something we proactively advise customers not to do.  In response to the reports, we issued an alert to retail customers in November reinforcing that message. As an additional precautionary measure, we supplemented our existing bottle inspection processes and automated sniffer machine with a "human sniffer" on each production line.

Each of our 3-gallon and 5-gallon bottles goes through a vigorous multi-barrier process to inspect, clean and sanitize the bottles.  When our delivery staff collects empty bottles in the field, they are screened visually. If there are obvious sources of contamination, suspect bottles are removed from the supply chain and destroyed. Bottles that pass this screening step are returned to the distribution branch and then transported back to the factory. At this point, each trailer of bottles is re-inspected and evaluated by trained staff. If any remaining bottles are deemed suspect, those bottles are destroyed. Once inside our factory, each and every bottle goes through a specialized, automated "sniff" machine that detects whether there is any presence of organic compounds such as gasoline or diesel. Any bottles that test positive for contamination are destroyed. Bottles that pass all of these examinations are washed with hot detergent, sanitized with disinfectant, rinsed, then filled with water and capped. Each of these processes is tested for efficacy throughout the day."