Water & Health
E. Coli Scare Spurs Bottled Water Recall
In the third week of June this year, the
Niagara Bottling company is recalled 14
brands of its bottled water products after
one spring showed signs of contamination
with the E. coli bacteria, the company said in
a news release.
While the company says no E. coli has
been detected in any finished product,
“we immediately shut down our operations, disinfected
our bottling lines and initiated a voluntary recall in an
abundance of caution and in the interests of consumer
safety.”
Niagara says no complaints of illness have yet been
received.
The bottled waters under recall include the following
brands: Acadia, Acme, Big Y, Best Yet, 7-11, Niagara,
Nature’s Place, Pricerite, Superchill, Morning Fresh, Shaws,
Shoprite, Western Beef Blue, and Wegmans
“A lot of older people restrict their water intake because
they don’t want to keep going to the loo.”
Official guidelines suggest adults should drink between
1.6 and two litres a day. But just 4 per cent of the GPs
questioned believed their patients were hydrating properly.
Research has shown many people drink just one glass of
water or less each day.
By contrast, almost £4 billion a year is spent on squash,
juice, energy drinks and fizzy pop.
Spending on smoothies rose 159 per cent between 2005
and 2007 as Innocent became a household name, but has
since suffered from negative publicity around the impact
on health of consuming too much sugar.
Is Too Much Water During Exercise a Bad
Thing?
Drinking excessive water while working out can be
bad for your health.
Swap tea and smoothies for more water to
beat fatigue, say experts
It is ‘not enough’ to
rely on tea, coffee and
soft drinks, experts
say, as data show poor
drinking habits are
putting strain on the
NHS
Smoothies and health
drinks have become so popular that people are drinking
less water without realizing and then crowding GP
surgeries with complaints of fatigue, heath experts have
warned.
Tiredness is the main concern in one in five consultations,
according to a survey of 300 GPs, who said often the
symptoms had been caused by dehydration.
They said many people wrongly believed they only needed
to drink when thirsty, or that it was enough to consume
mostly tea, coffee and other fluids.
People were falling “out of the habit” of drinking pure
water as smoothies and health drinks become more
prevalent in shops and in kitchen fridges.
Tom Sanders, professor of nutrition and dietetics at King’s
College London, said: “One of the issues is whether
people are actually drinking water at mealtimes in the same
way as they once did.
“When I grew up there was always a jug of water on the
table. Schools have a habit of doing that, but a lot of
people have got out of the habit. They expect to drink
something else.
Drinking too much water during exercise can lead to a lifethreatening condition.
An international panel of experts is urging athletes to ditch
long-held hydration advice for a safer strategy: only drink
water when thirsty during exercise.
The new guidelines, published in the Clinical Journal of
Sport Medicine, state that drinking excessive amounts
of water or sports drinks during workouts can lead to a
life-threatening condition known as exercise-associated
hyponatremia.
The condition occurs when too much fluid is ingested,
overwhelming the body’s ability to rid itself of excess
water and flushing the blood of vital sodium stores.
Symptoms include lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea,
puffiness and weight gain during athletic events, such
as marathons. More severe symptoms include vomiting,
headache, confusion, agitation, delirium, seizure or coma.
The new guidelines fly in the face of conventional advice
encouraging athletes to drink more than they need during
exercise to prevent dehydration, fatigue, muscle cramps or
heat stroke, often using clear urine as a gauge.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • July - August 2015
33