The 85,000 cases of Arwa brand bottled water in Afghanistan that were initially found to be contaminated were later cleared for drinking after additional testing found nothing wrong with the water.

In a release from the Coalition Forces Land Component Command Surgeon’s Office, officials said that the water was retested and it was cleared for consumption.

The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine laboratory conducted the first test and placed the water on medical hold until the tests could be verified.

The water had registered positive for containing too many tritium molecules, Stars and Stripes reported in July. Tritium can increase the chances of cancer, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site.

After the initial tests, the U.S. military retested the water, which is prescribed in its operating procedures.

“Contaminants such as tritium were not detected in the water, neither in retests of the first samples tested nor in tests of additional samples for the lot,” the military news release stated.

All of the water provided to troops in Afghanistan is monitored by the U.S. military and routinely evaluated, military officials said.

Migrated