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- NATION, Page 67American NotesYUPPIESSacrebleu! Bubble Trouble
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- In chic restaurants and athletic clubs, health-conscious
- Americans guzzled so much Perrier bottled mineral water in the
- 1980s that it became the drink of the decade. Some of the fizz
- may go out of Perrier's $450 million annual sales with word
- last week that the firm's U.S. distributor is recalling its
- entire inventory from store shelves nationwide because
- laboratory tests found benzene in a small number of bottles.
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- The potential carcinogen was discovered by North Carolina
- health officials, who so prize the purity of the water from an
- underground spring in Vergeze, France, that they use it as a
- standard test of other water supplies. Although the state
- advises the public not to consume the product, the federal Food
- and Drug Administration considers the risks of contracting
- cancer one in a million over a person's lifetime. The company
- is investigating its packaging and distribution centers to
- locate the problem. In the wake of doubts cast on oat bran's
- nutritional benefits, it's almost enough to drive yuppies back
- to pretzels and beer.
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