A water expert reveals Walmart’s Great Value water contains contaminants you may want to avoid.
In a viral TikTok, water quality activist Oasis (@oasiswaterapp) issues a warning to people who drink particularly large amounts of water from retailers like Walmart and Costco.
How clean is Walmart bottled water?
“To anyone who drinks Walmart water, it may not be as clean as you think,” he says at the beginning of the video. A screenshot of Walmart Great Value water is shown behind him.
“It turns out the water contains a total of five contaminants, two of which are well above our health guidelines,” he says. “Their spring water is full of microplastics, has a pH of 6, but tested negative for PFAs.”
He continues: “The highest contaminant level was bromate, which can increase the risk of kidney and thyroid cancer if consumed in excess, along with radium T36 and T38, which was also below the legal limit, but the legal limit does not take into account many health guidelines and experts. Since it is spring water, it contains a small amount of natural minerals.”
He also emphasizes that the app shows where different brands of water are bottled. Different brands can come from similar sources and have similar compositions.
“Interestingly, they use the same bottling company as Costco Kirkland, so you get the same quality as there,” he says. “Their distilled water is a little cleaner because it’s distilled, which removes almost all of the contaminants. However, this means the water is highly processed and because it’s packaged in plastic, this one is still full of microplastics. As you can see, there’s still nitrate in this one.”
Are these pollutants dangerous?
That doesn’t mean, however, that bottled water isn’t safe for most people. According to the Centers for Disease Control, water is safe for virtually anyone who isn’t already immunocompromised, as long as bottlers follow established procedures, policies and regulations for sourcing, processing and bottling water. Even then, people with these concerns are simply advised to drink the more heavily filtered versions of bottled water, such as distilled water.
Bottled water sales only reached an all-time high in 2021, suggesting that despite the rise of companies that make reusable bottles, like Stanley, consumers are not shying away from bottled water as a source of hydration. Realistically, only about 16% of respondents expressed a negative or somewhat negative opinion of bottled water.
Viewers react to the review
Some viewers said they don’t drink Great Value water because of the quality. Rather, it’s a necessity because of the low price.
“Don’t worry, we thought it wasn’t good water,” wrote one commenter.
“Anything is better than our tap water,” wrote another commenter.
“Then find me a water that I can get 40 bottles of for $7,” wrote one commenter.
Others asked the account for an explanation of where they can find high-quality water without microplastics, as it is difficult to avoid them in bottled water.
“So how do we get clean water without microplastics?” wrote one commenter.
“Distilled water doesn’t contain the natural minerals we need,” wrote another commenter. “What water do you recommend that has little to no contaminants? I assume we should switch to glass to avoid microplastics?”
“No way, microplastics in my plastic bottle, huh?” wrote one commenter. “What? Looks like we’re going to have to drink from rivers again, folks.”
@oasiswaterapp Do you drink Walmart Great Value water? #walmart #water #oasis ♬ CHIHIRO Aaron Hibell Remix – Aaron Hibell
The Daily Dot contacted Oasis via email about the video, as well as Walmart and Costco via contact forms.
Internet culture is messy—but we break it down for you in a daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr. Newsletter. Get the best (and worst) of the internet delivered straight to your inbox.
