• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Bottled water warning

Baron Samedi

Critical Thinker
Baron Samedi
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
476
I just read about bottled water from Armenia being labeled dangerous by the FDA. Here's a link to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/03/08/water-arsenic.html

What I find amusing is this part here:

The Jermuk brands, which were distributed across the United States and have been recalled, include:
  • Jermuk Original Sparkling Natural Mineral Water Fortified With Natural Gas From The Spring, imported by Zetlian Bakery Inc. of Pico Rivera, Calif.
Click to expand...


Mmmm.... nothing says goodness like "fortified with natural gas".
 
I still like the Sprite commercials that show the bear peeing in the natural spring.
 
Baron Samedi said:
I just read about bottled water from Armenia being labeled dangerous by the FDA. Here's a link to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/03/08/water-arsenic.html

What I find amusing is this part here:




Mmmm.... nothing says goodness like "fortified with natural gas".
Click to expand...

"Natural gas" in this case is most likely a crummy translation. What the original (the text on the bottles sold in Armenia) probably meant was "Fortified with the naturally occuring carbon dioxide gas from the spring."

In German, "Natural gas" is "Erdgas" which means "gas from the earth." I'm probably going to bungle this, but "natural gas" would translate literally as "Natuerliches Gas." "Gas" being in German any kind of matter in the form of a gas. When referring to bottled water, "Gas" always means "carbon dioxide gas."

I know Germany is not Armenia. I'm just using German to illustrate the difficulties of translating not just the words, but the cultural content that surrounds the use of those words.

So, yeah, the text sounds funny but I wouldn't expect the water to be full of flammable natural gas.
 
MortFurd said:
"Natural gas" in this case is most likely a crummy translation. What the original (the text on the bottles sold in Armenia) probably meant was "Fortified with the naturally occuring carbon dioxide gas from the spring."

In German, "Natural gas" is "Erdgas" which means "gas from the earth." I'm probably going to bungle this, but "natural gas" would translate literally as "Natuerliches Gas." "Gas" being in German any kind of matter in the form of a gas. When referring to bottled water, "Gas" always means "carbon dioxide gas."

I know Germany is not Armenia. I'm just using German to illustrate the difficulties of translating not just the words, but the cultural content that surrounds the use of those words.

So, yeah, the text sounds funny but I wouldn't expect the water to be full of flammable natural gas.
Click to expand...


Nope, They contain 500 to 600 micro grams of arsenic per liter.
 
Dustin said:
Nope, They contain 500 to 600 micro grams of arsenic per liter.
Click to expand...

I was talking about the "natural gas" comment, which looks funny but doesn't really mean that there's a flammable gas in your water.

Arsenic is a poisonous metalloid element, and you don't want any of that in your water. I didn't say or imply that there's no arsenic in the Armenian bottled water.

No natural gas. Arsenic content as described in the report.
 
MortFurd said:
"Natural gas" in this case is most likely a crummy translation. What the original (the text on the bottles sold in Armenia) probably meant was "Fortified with the naturally occuring carbon dioxide gas from the spring."

In German, "Natural gas" is "Erdgas" which means "gas from the earth." I'm probably going to bungle this, but "natural gas" would translate literally as "Natuerliches Gas." "Gas" being in German any kind of matter in the form of a gas. When referring to bottled water, "Gas" always means "carbon dioxide gas."

I know Germany is not Armenia. I'm just using German to illustrate the difficulties of translating not just the words, but the cultural content that surrounds the use of those words.

So, yeah, the text sounds funny but I wouldn't expect the water to be full of flammable natural gas.
Click to expand...

In fact, the natural gas comment is likely only there because of differences in labelling regulations. Almost all (if not actuall all) sparkling water is not actually taken straight from a spring and bottled. It is taken from a spring, cleaned and filtered and then has the sparkle reintroduced. When it is advertised as "naturally sparkling" what they actually mean is that the water in the spring has CO2 in it and the same CO2 that was taken out of it in processing is put back in, rather than using evil artificial CO2. The same is true for water that naturally contains minerals. This means that there is always a standard amount of things in it and so the labels are accurate when they state there is a certain amount of whatever in it. I would guess that Armenian labels state this explicitly, and so the translation also does. It only seems amusing because people don't realise this is exactly what happens with their normal bottled water as well.
 
Cuddles said:
In fact, the natural gas comment is likely only there because of differences in labelling regulations. Almost all (if not actuall all) sparkling water is not actually taken straight from a spring and bottled. It is taken from a spring, cleaned and filtered and then has the sparkle reintroduced. When it is advertised as "naturally sparkling" what they actually mean is that the water in the spring has CO2 in it and the same CO2 that was taken out of it in processing is put back in, rather than using evil artificial CO2. The same is true for water that naturally contains minerals. This means that there is always a standard amount of things in it and so the labels are accurate when they state there is a certain amount of whatever in it. I would guess that Armenian labels state this explicitly, and so the translation also does. It only seems amusing because people don't realise this is exactly what happens with their normal bottled water as well.
Click to expand...

I'm confused (which isn't rare). They filter the water, remove the stuff, and then put all the stuff back in? What am I missing here, since this sounds very silly to me.
 
Baron Samedi said:
I'm confused (which isn't rare). They filter the water, remove the stuff, and then put all the stuff back in? What am I missing here, since this sounds very silly to me.
Click to expand...

Food has to be standard. If a label says "0.1g calcium", the bottle has to contain 0.1g of calcium, within certain error limits. Water coming straight out of a spring has no such regulation and so different bottles could contain thousands of times more or less than is claimed, which is illegal in most places and could be very dangerous. This isn't a problem for some mineral water, where the minerals are simply added in production. For water that is advertised as containg naturally occuring minerals however, the water must genuinely contain them naturally, so taking them out and then putting them back in standard amounts is the only solution, or at least the only one that I know of. I can't guarantee this is true for all mineral water, but it certainly true for a lot of it, and it seems a reasonable explanation for the wording on the Armenian label.

It is indeed very silly, but with the hang-up people have with the word "natural" these days it is presumably still profitable.
 
Cuddles said:
Food has to be standard. If a label says "0.1g calcium", the bottle has to contain 0.1g of calcium, within certain error limits. Water coming straight out of a spring has no such regulation and so different bottles could contain thousands of times more or less than is claimed, which is illegal in most places and could be very dangerous. This isn't a problem for some mineral water, where the minerals are simply added in production. For water that is advertised as containg naturally occuring minerals however, the water must genuinely contain them naturally, so taking them out and then putting them back in standard amounts is the only solution, or at least the only one that I know of. I can't guarantee this is true for all mineral water, but it certainly true for a lot of it, and it seems a reasonable explanation for the wording on the Armenian label.

It is indeed very silly, but with the hang-up people have with the word "natural" these days it is presumably still profitable.
Click to expand...

Right. I forgot about that labeling on the side, "Content per serving: Sodium 0g; Glucose 2g; Carbon 2g; Arsenic 500 µg" etc. Thank you kindly for this! :)
 
MortFurd said:
So, yeah, the text sounds funny but I wouldn't expect the water to be full of flammable natural gas.
Click to expand...

Wasn't there a notable explosion in england because of this very issue I remember seeing something about it on an engineering disaster show
 
Beady said:
Do you mean it's sort of like with Russian, where scientists have to talk about vortexes in polite society because "black hole" has an entirely different cultural meaning?
Click to expand...

I don't know what "black hole" would be in Russian, though I could make a guess that it's something like a cornhole. That would be the kind of thing I'm talking about. A literal translation that doesn't mean anything like what it looks like it would.

Another good example would be "Kohlensauere." This is a common (in Germany) way to refer to the carbonation in bottled water. The usual translation for that is "Carbonic Acid," and I don't expect you'd get many takers when trying to push that in the US: "St. Medardus Quelle - All natural spring water with natural carbonic acid." (St. Medardus Quelle - Natuerliche Mineralwasser mit natuerlichem Kohlensaeure." All it really means is naturally carbonated spring water, but it doesn't sound too yummy to American ears.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom