Drinking water containing arsenic is being sold illegally in London to Muslims who believe it is holy, an investigation has found.
"Zam Zam water" from a well in Mecca is considered sacred by Muslim pilgrims. Visitors are allowed to bring back small amounts but Saudi Arabia has banned any commercial export.
A BBC investigation (using an undercover researcher) discovered Zam Zam water was being sold by Muslim bookshops in Wandsworth, south-west London, and Upton Park, east London, as well as in Luton, Bedfordshire.
"The water is poisonous, particularly because of the high levels of arsenic, which is a carcinogen," said Dr Duncan Campbell, president of the Association of Public Analysts. "The limits set in drinking water are set there for very good reason. Once the water gets above that limit, it's not safe."
Secret recordings captured the vendors describing customers who drank it daily. "They depend on it, they don't drink anything else," said the owner of an Islamic bookshop in Upton Park.
The BBC asked a pilgrim to take samples from taps which were linked to the Zam Zam well and to buy bottles on sale in Mecca, to compare the water on sale illegally with the genuine source. These showed high levels of nitrate and potentially harmful bacteria, and traces of arsenic at three times the permitted maximum level, just like the illegal water which was purchased in the UK.
The Saudi embassy in London declined to comment on the issue of contamination at the source in Mecca.
I saw the 6.30pm news report last night. If you go to Walsingham and buy a bottle to fill at the shrine that bottle costs a few pence and will hold maybe a teacup full. I believe Lourdes water is taken in similar quantities. These bookshops have bottles stacked ceiling high, of those square water bottles that hold as much as a gallon.
Warnings about tainted Zam Zam water come every year around the time of Ramadan. Because of the ban on commercial export it has usually been assumed that the water sold, as well as being unwholesome, is also fake. I often wondered where they got it if it was so contaminated with arsenic. In the famous 'Peckham spring' episode from the comedy show Only Fools and Horses Del sold water from the kitchen tap in his flat in Peckham as spring water. London tap water is perfectly safe, even if it does not suit the delicate palate of the bruschetta chompers of Waitrose.
Where the BBC investigation is interesting is that it found that the well in Mecca has the same levels of contamination as the water sold in the UK, suggesting that it is genuinely from Mecca. I wonder what Meccan tap water is like? One good thing about the city being forbidden to infidels, we don't get exposed to their polluted water.
Is this another reason for the expensive health problems suffered by many Muslim families, to add to their rickets from lack of vitamin D in burka clad women and children, and the genetic defects from generations of first cousin marriage and inbreeding?
"Zam Zam water" from a well in Mecca is considered sacred by Muslim pilgrims. Visitors are allowed to bring back small amounts but Saudi Arabia has banned any commercial export.
A BBC investigation (using an undercover researcher) discovered Zam Zam water was being sold by Muslim bookshops in Wandsworth, south-west London, and Upton Park, east London, as well as in Luton, Bedfordshire.
"The water is poisonous, particularly because of the high levels of arsenic, which is a carcinogen," said Dr Duncan Campbell, president of the Association of Public Analysts. "The limits set in drinking water are set there for very good reason. Once the water gets above that limit, it's not safe."
Secret recordings captured the vendors describing customers who drank it daily. "They depend on it, they don't drink anything else," said the owner of an Islamic bookshop in Upton Park.
The BBC asked a pilgrim to take samples from taps which were linked to the Zam Zam well and to buy bottles on sale in Mecca, to compare the water on sale illegally with the genuine source. These showed high levels of nitrate and potentially harmful bacteria, and traces of arsenic at three times the permitted maximum level, just like the illegal water which was purchased in the UK.
The Saudi embassy in London declined to comment on the issue of contamination at the source in Mecca.
I saw the 6.30pm news report last night. If you go to Walsingham and buy a bottle to fill at the shrine that bottle costs a few pence and will hold maybe a teacup full. I believe Lourdes water is taken in similar quantities. These bookshops have bottles stacked ceiling high, of those square water bottles that hold as much as a gallon.
Warnings about tainted Zam Zam water come every year around the time of Ramadan. Because of the ban on commercial export it has usually been assumed that the water sold, as well as being unwholesome, is also fake. I often wondered where they got it if it was so contaminated with arsenic. In the famous 'Peckham spring' episode from the comedy show Only Fools and Horses Del sold water from the kitchen tap in his flat in Peckham as spring water. London tap water is perfectly safe, even if it does not suit the delicate palate of the bruschetta chompers of Waitrose.
Where the BBC investigation is interesting is that it found that the well in Mecca has the same levels of contamination as the water sold in the UK, suggesting that it is genuinely from Mecca. I wonder what Meccan tap water is like? One good thing about the city being forbidden to infidels, we don't get exposed to their polluted water.
Is this another reason for the expensive health problems suffered by many Muslim families, to add to their rickets from lack of vitamin D in burka clad women and children, and the genetic defects from generations of first cousin marriage and inbreeding?
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