Bottled Water

Today in the NY Times’ Frequent Traveler column, writer Dr. Jerome Levine detailed his authoritative tips for “What Not to Wear (or Eat) Overseas”.

He starts out with this passage: “I take all of the necessary health precautions when I travel. I drink bottled water, I won’t eat anything unless it’s peeled, cooked or boiled.” He goes on to detail is obsession with cleanliness and bugs: “I cringed as I watched other visitors going out in the evening with shorts, short-sleeves, and probably not having sprayed themselves down”. I sure hope I never meet this guy at the beach.

Dr. Levine details all the things you should never eat whilst traveling. Unpeeled fruits (bananas?), oysters, “raw” salad, peppers, cucumbers…it goes on. I hope the good doctor lives to be 150 but I think is over-precaution is a bit absurd. Even the “bottled water” assumption doesn’t do any good.

When I used to live in Hong Kong, we used to get our Chinese visa’s and cross the border to go golfing. There are only two courses in Hong Kong but there are a wealth of nice, cheap courses just over the border. Once, while golfing just north of the former-Portugese colony of Macau, I bought some bottled water and stored it in my golf bag.

Six years later, I found that very bottle.

The water inside looked like a science experiment. It was green with large, living creatures swimming around. The bottle was still sealed.

And it doesn’t sound like my experience is unique:

Rocus Klont, a researcher at the University Medical Center Nijmegen, in Nijmegen, Netherlands and his team tested bottled mineral waters from nine European countries: Norway, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Austria, Spain, Hungary and Turkey. They also tested water from India, Morocco, Australia, Canada, Tanzania, Mexico and Cuba.

In all, 68 bottles were tested. The bottled water was found to be contaminated with bacteria and fungi, traces of Legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaire's disease when inhaled, it found evidence of the mold penicillium, part of a ubiquitous family of fungi, some of which cause illness while others are used to make products including the antibiotic penicillin.

So, to the good Doctor Feel Good: put on some shorts, peel a banana and relax a bit.