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`Packaged drinking water meets BIS norms'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI March 3. After suffering a near 30 per cent drop in sales following an `exposure' by a Delhi-based NGO (Centre for Science and Environment) that packaged drinking water (PDW) sold in major cities contained pesticides residue, PDW makers in Tamil Nadu today said their manufacturing, packaging and testing standards met all Bureau of Indian Standards norms.

The water sold by the manufactures having BIS certification was tested using the latest and sophisticated methods and the samples were found to be "absolutely safe", the president of the TN PDW Manufacturers Association, K. Rajaram, and the joint secretary Vinayakmurthy, told mediapersons today.

Tamil Nadu had 189 PDW makers with ISI certification. The CSE findings, made public by the media, caused "genuine concern" among people. The BIS sent samples collected from all these makers for testing. Results did not reveal any pesticide residue, even after the samples were tested in the more accurate "capillary column method". Individual testing by manufacturers showed similar results. The office bearers said raw water was tapped from deep borewells after extensive tests for contaminants.

The association general secretary, V. Murali, blamed non-ISI marked PDW makers for the controversy and said public health officials were not cracking down on them.

Stricter norms meant "more laboratories with sophisticated equipment to detect accurately even elements of the quantity of one part per billion. But, if set, we are prepared to meet these standards too", he said.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) MP, P. Mohan, urged the Union Health Ministry to provide a "level playing field for BIS-certified water companies, ordering non-BIS companies to refrain from marketing their produce without certification" and protect the public from waterborne diseases.

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