Bottled water manufactured by Whole Foods and sold in most of its US stores and on Amazon contains potentially harmful levels of arsenic

Also published on Consumer Reports' website if this is paywalled / loginwalled for anyone: https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/whole-foods-starkey-spring-water-sold-on-amazon-contains-high-levels-of-arsenic/

Starkey Spring Water, introduced by Whole Foods in 2015, had concerning levels of arsenic, ranging from 9.49 to 9.56 parts per billion (PPB)

Federal regulations require manufacturers to limit the amount of arsenic, a potentially dangerous heavy metal, in bottled water to 10 PPB.

To me this reeks of doing the bare minimum in order to just barely comply with the regulations. And that regulatory maximum is almost certainly too high to begin with:

But many of the 45 brands of bottled water Consumer Reports scientists tested between February and May of this year had undetectable amounts of arsenic, demonstrating that lower levels are feasible, says Brian Ronholm, CR’s director of food policy and former head of the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Starkey Spring Water was the only brand CR tested that exceeded 3 PPB.

The FDA, which has not updated its bottled water standard for arsenic in 15 years, says the current limit ensures that the quality of bottled water is, at a minimum, comparable to public drinking water. CR urged the agency last year to lower the federal limit to 3 PPB, a level that more clearly protects public health, especially for children, Ronholm says.

Shout out to Consumer Reports - this kind of reporting is one of the reasons I keep my $40/year membership even when I'm not planning any major purchases I need their ratings on.

Consumer Reports bought all the bottled water samples anonymously at retail, like a consumer would