By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter

The government said that seven out of 79 brands of bottled water were found to contain bromate, a suspected carcinogen, exceeding international guidelines for drinking water quality.

The National Institute for Environmental Research (NIER), a unit of the Ministry of Environment, said the seven brands contained bromate levels of 0.0116-0.0225 milligram per liter, above the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 0.01 milligram per liter.

The ministry notified the manufacturers of the result and ordered them to recall their products. It also required them to stop using the ozone sterilization system that creates the substance.

However, the government declined to disclose the names of the seven brands, as currently there are no domestic rules regulating the level of bromate in bottled water.

Ministry officials said that the substance poses no serious threat to human health, as bromate is rated as a 2B risk carcinogen ― possibly carcinogenic to humans ― by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

``Bromate is not such a dangerous substance if we are not exposed to too much of it _ it's as bad as coffee. Still, we will make sure that bottled water makers take all steps to eliminate the process creating the substance,'' a ministry official said. ``We will seek a revision of the law on bottled water to set up legal ground for a permissible level.

The government expects the revised law will come into effect around early September.

According to NIER, bromate is generated during the ozone sterilization process, which aims to kill microorganisms.

However, since the source water does not have much bromate ion and ozone sterilization is a relatively new disinfection process, there was no law regulating the concentration in Korea. The United States, Canada and some European countries have a limit of 0.01 milligram per liter, the same as the WHO guideline.

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr