No Deliberate Tampering in SoCal Bottled Water Scare

All children released from local hospitals by Thursday night

By OLSEN EBRIGHT and JACK NOYES

Updated 5:20 PM PST, Fri, Apr 24, 2009

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There was no deliberate tampering in a contaminated water bottle scare that sent 12 students to the hospital, Los Angeles County officials said Friday.

At 12:45 p.m. Thursday, fire officials got word that students were becoming sick at La Mesa Junior High School at 26623 May Way.

County fire inspector Steve Zermeno said the water bottles believed to have caused the sickness came from the school's vending machines. It was not immediately clear what the bottles contained, but it appeared to be a "bleach-like substance," he said.

By 10 p.m., all 12 students had been treated and released from local hospitals. There were no serious injuries reported.

Students Hospitalized

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Students Hospitalized

The FBI dispatched a hazardous materials agent to the school "as a precaution," but Los Angeles County authorities conducted field testing on the bottles and is overseeing additional testing at a county lab, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller of the bureau's Los Angeles field office.

"The FBI would remain involved only if deliberate tampering were suspected, and evidence does not currently indicate that it is," she said.

Pat Willett, the community liaison for William S. Hart Union School District, said the bottles were sealed when students bought them.

The school district notified all schools to remove the water or shut down the vending machines until further notice.

On Thursday evening, Pepsi released a statement about the afternoon scare at La Mesa Junior High School:

"There is absolutely no evidence that (Thursday's) incident was caused by anything in our manufacturing process. We have examined and tasted numerous bottles that were produced at the same time as those in this case and have found them to be free of any problems whatsoever.

"The only products in question have been those that were previously opened, and we are working closely with local authorities to determine exactly what happened. We are also running our own independent tests and we have no reason to believe this is anything but an isolated incident."