PORTLAND, ME — State officials may tighten guidelines on warehousing bottled water, in response to evidence that spilled cleaning fluid contaminated water that sickened two people in Bridgton, the Press Herald reported.
According to the paper, tests on a pair of gallon jugs of Poland Spring water showed the presence, inside and out, of organic compounds and substances like pine oil and lemon oil, said Dr. Philip Haines, deputy director of the Maine Bureau of Health. The bottles also had sudsing agents on the outside.
Poland Spring told state officials it does not use cleaners with those chemicals and they are not at the plant in Hollis where the two jugs were bottled, Haines said in the article. That leads state officials to surmise that the water may have been contaminated during distribution or storage.
Haines has directed state toxicologists to determine how harmful the cleaning components are if ingested, he said. The people who drank the water have reported no lingering effects, the paper reported.
Poland Spring recalled several cardboard cases of water and found the tops of some cases to be wet and smelling of lemon cleaning compound, Haines said in the article. It is possible that some components of the cleaner could seep through the high-density plastic commonly used in water and milk jugs, he said.
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