“Real Water” that poisoned dozens contained chemical in rocket fuel — An expert witness testified hydrazine was likely formed during an electrolysis process

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 206 points – “Real Water” that poisoned dozens contained chemical from rocket fuel
arstechnica.com

“Real Water” that poisoned dozens contained chemical in rocket fuel — An expert witness testified hydrazine was likely formed during an electrolysis process::An expert witness testified hydrazine was likely formed during an electrolysis process.

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"These people were outrageous," Kemp said. There was "no safety testing, no analysis of the product to see what was in it." He said that the person who developed the water treatment process for Real Water bought the titanium tubes "from some Russian guy in the 80s" and spent four to five months making alkaline waters in his garage, working until he had a formula that didn't make him vomit or have diarrhea.

So woo-woo water with no oversight until people die from being poisoned. Science has to cone in and explain basic chemistry to these titans of industry, which they no doubt reject.

Just call it Q-water and keep it pumping. It’ll work itself out in a couple of years. Pairs well with ivermectin.

Taking to heart "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" a little too much.

The idiots who buy this shit are the same idiots who say that regulations hurt small businesses

In the article, it discusses young children and infants whose livers were severely affected by the toxicity. My first thought was "Why are people giving this to infants??"

I've been drinking this polluted city water my whole life that gives me impure thoughts regarding the same sex. But with this water I can start my child off right.

Small business owner here. Good regulations are what allows my customers to trust me, or at least trust that I’m not willing to go to prison for lying about my product, or worse.

"RE²AL WATER"

Your honor our product clearly does not attempt to advertise itself as "real water", motion to dismiss.

These guys could have just bottled tap water with some standard treatment and would have been fine.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

In an interview Friday, Kemp told Ars he represents a little over 60 of the plaintiffs, including the seven in the case that received a jury verdict this week.

"We're hoping that the punitive award sends a message to people that they should test bottled water products before they put them on the market," Kemp told Ars.

The poisonings came to light in early 2021 when the local authorities in Nevada and the Food and Drug Administration announced that at least five infants and children had suffered liver failure after drinking the water.

In May 2021, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Real Water Inc. on behalf of the FDA, alleging the company's officers, Brent Jones and his son, Blain Jones, were selling adulterated products made amid multiple manufacturing violations.

As Ars previously reported, the Joneses agreed to settle the case in June, and the DOJ bound them with a permanent injunction from ever preparing, processing, or selling water again.

A study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in November 2021 laid out 25 cases of acute liver failure linked to the water—22 in Nevada and three in California, all of which occurred at the end of 2020.

The original article contains 466 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Hydrazine isn't just rocket fuel. It's a hypergolic rocket fuel, which is a particularly toxic and violent form of rocket fuel.

God damnit, I'm pretty sure this is the shit they have outside the Raiders Games in the big ass vats for people to stay hydrated. FML, I was there in August drinking that shit.

Did you know regular water contains a chemical used in rocket fuel, too? Yeah, Oxygen. Saying it "contained chemicals also found in rocket fuel" is just click bait. Not saying Real Water didn't have issues or should be forgiven, just that sensationalist headlines are dumb.

Well yes, but that stuff contained hydrazine. It's not that sensationalist.

I'm just surprised the people making it didn't get jail time.

Yeah, this ain't "dihydrogen monoxide lol11!", hydrazine is really really nasty stuff.

They can say it included a highly toxic chemical. Whether or not it's used in rocket fuel is completely irrelevant.

They could say that, but a primary use for hydrazine is rocket fuel, so I'm not sure why I should find the headline outrageous.

Because we're not talking about making rockets - we're talking about water.

Some mushrooms contain hydrazine (Gyromitra esculenta), just because its used as rocket fuel doesn't mean IT'S rocket fuel.

Legitimately serious chemical, but the "cOnTaInEd cHeMiCaL iN rOcKeT fUeL" bit of the headline is sensationalist clickbait.

On the contrary, hydrazine is nasty stuff. If anything, the headline missed out on being more sensational than it could be.

Hydrazine (from Wikipedia)

Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula N2H4. It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly toxic unless handled in solution as, for example, hydrazine hydrate (N2H4·xH2O).

Hydrazine is mainly used as a foaming agent in preparing polymer foams, but applications also include its uses as a precursor to polymerization catalysts, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals, as well as a long-term storable propellant for in-space spacecraft propulsion. Additionally, hydrazine is used in various rocket fuels and to prepare the gas precursors used in air bags. Hydrazine is used within both nuclear and conventional electrical power plant steam cycles as an oxygen scavenger to control concentrations of dissolved oxygen in an effort to reduce corrosion.