Real Water CEO apologises as FDA warns consumers not to drink the company’s product

Authorities say five cases of acute non-viral hepatitis in children linked to the alkaline water

The boss of Real Water has issued a personal apology as the FDA warned consumers not to drink the company’s product.

Brent Jones, the CEO of the Las Vegas-based water company, issued a video statement in which he expressed their “deepest sympathy” and said the firm is cooperating with the Food and Drug Administration investigation.

The FDA says it has been alerted to five cases of acute non-viral hepatitis in children and infants linked to the “alkaline water products.”

Real Water has now pulled the brand from retailers and issued a voluntary recall to consumers.

Four lawsuits have been filed in Clark County, Nevada, against the company from consumers who said they became ill after drinking Real Water.

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This included one man who alleges he had to be airlifted to hospital for a liver transplant.

“First, we’d like to express our deepest sympathy and concern over the events that led to the inquiry,” said Mr Jones said in the video. 

He added that he had started the company 13 years ago “with the intention to provide a healthy product that benefits and elevates people’s lifestyles. We are deeply saddened to learn that anything otherwise could be the result.”

Real Water was marketed as “alkalized water infused with negative ions” and on its label claims it is “the healthiest drinking water available.”

Three California women have filed a federal-class action lawsuit against the company another complaint would allow anyone across the US who became ill after drinking the product to join the case.

Two of the plaintiffs claimed they suffered nausea after drinking Real Water, and one found blood in her urine.

“Nowhere in Defendant’s advertisements, marketing or labeling of the Products does it disclose that the Product causes liver failure, hospitalization, fever, vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite, and/or fatigue,” lawyer David Hilton Wise wrote in court papers.

“Plaintiffs would not have purchased the product, or would have paid much less for it, if they knew that they were undertaking a risk to their health by consuming it.”