DEW Bottled Water Has Caused 180 Deaths in Nigeria-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
DEW brand bottled water sold in Nigeria and other parts of Africa has caused at least 180 deaths and has been known to infect those who drink it with the Ebola virus.
The Truth:
Claims that DEW bottled water causes death or has been contaminated with the Ebola virus are false.
Those rumors have been repeated in chain emails and social media posts since at least 2011. One such message reads:
URGENT!!!! Please, don’t buy or drink any bottled water called “DEW”. Customs says it was shipped into Nigeria from Tanzania where it has killed 180 people and now finding its way into south africa. It is said to contain ebola. Please pass this on and save millions. If u don’t believe check google for “DEW bottled water. (SFTBC)… Plz broadcast
Reports of toxic DEW bottled water can be traced back to 2011. At that time, it was rumored that Dew, an unregistered bottled water that contained a poison, had made its way into marketplaces in Nigeria by way of Tanzania and had killed 180 people.
The National Agency for Food Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria said it had investigated those claims and found that they were “false and mischievous.”
Still, Nigeria doesn’t allow bottled water to be imported into the country, and DEW is not among the country’s registered bottled waters, so consumers were urged to alert authorities if they saw DEW bottled water being sold in marketplaces, Modern Ghana reports:
The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) has therefore advised the public to report any person who offered DEW bottled water for sale.
According to a statement issued by the FDB in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the board had not registered any brand of bottled water with the name DEW.
The statement, signed by the Chief Executive of the FDB, Dr Stephen K. Opuni, said rumours had suggested that the DEW bottled water had been imported from Tanzania into Nigeria and was alleged to contain a chemical that had caused the death of 180 people in that country.
It said the FDB established that the rumour was false, after investigations it conducted, including post-market surveillance activities and contacts with the NAFDAC of Nigeria and the Tanzanian Bureau of Standards.
So, it’s not true that DEW bottled water is poisonous and has killed 180 people. It is true, however, that DEW bottled water cannot be sold in Nigeria because it isn’t registered with health agencies there.