Jury Rules Real Water Owes Nearly $130 Million For Liver Issues
If you were walking into any convenience store in Las Vegas in the mid-2010s, you saw them. Real Water promised “Beyond Alkalinity” with 9.0 pH water and “negative ions”. What customers received instead was liver damage due to the chemical hydrazine. Now a jury has awarded some of those affected nearly $130 Million.
How Did Real Water Cause Liver Issues?
When it comes to drinking water, the last thing you want to hear is “rocket fuel”. But that is exactly what the chemical hydrazine is used in. The highly toxic substance is flammable and not fit for human consumption. Unfortunately, Real Water did not know to test their water for the chemical, according to their own attorney. That mistake led to massive issues for customers of the supposedly healthy water brand.
People started getting sick from their larger 5 gallon bottles. The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) investigated and a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tied 25 acute liver failure cases back to the H2O. All but three were based in Nevada. One woman died, several children suffered liver failure. We are talking bad bad.
The jury’s award will go to the five people in this lawsuit who were made sick by the beverage. The lead plaintiff in the case was awarded more as his life expectancy has measurably dropped due to the poisoning.
Real Water wasn’t the only defendant in the case. Whole Foods, Costco, Terrible Herbst, and the companies that Real Water bought their testing equipment from – Hanna Instruments and Milwaukee Instruments – reached settlements separately from this jury award.
This Isn’t The Only Real Water Case
Wait, wasn’t there already a Real Water case? Yes. That case, representing seven other users of the bad water, led to a $228.5 million verdict back in October.
The people behind the Real Water brand settled their case with the feds and are no longer allowed to sell water again. Probably a good idea.
