This measure had already been taken by the company’s board of directors at the end of last month, when the proportion of sodium in the fluid increased from 200 milligrams per liter to 280 mg/L, while from chloride they went from 280 mg/L to 450 mg/L. Now him Ministry of Public Health (MSP) authorized a new increase in the measures, which will go to 400 mg/L and 700 mg/L respectively.
As in the determination at the end of April, the OSE and MSP authorities insisted that the measures will have no effect on health and that it only implies a sensitive difference to the “palate”, since the tap water will have a saltier taste. From the public company they affirm that they are “forced” to take this initiative due to the continuing shortage of reserves.
“They are not values that affect health. Sodium and chlorine are values that in our country are recommended up to a certain value, but not precisely because they affect health, but because they actually affect the conditions called electrical organs: that is, the taste, smell, or color that may have water,” said Minister Karina Rando in today’s announcement.
In any case, Health recommended greater control among severely hypertensive patients
However, although they ratified that water is “totally safe” to consumefrom the health portfolio recommended to the severe hypertensive that their blood pressure controls be carried out “more frequently” and, if they can do so, consume bottled mineral water. In addition, he recommended consulting a doctor before the appearance of changes in pressure.
The warning was also for those with kidney failure. Both for them and for those with high blood pressure, the chief commented: “These patients have a restriction in salt intake and we are adding a little salt. If we take into account that they consume approximately 2.5 grams or 3 grams of salt per day and we add 0.4 grams or 0.5 grams could be significant.”
Is the higher salinity harmful to health?
When they communicated the first increase in salinity a little over a week ago, the director of OSE Raúl Montero commented that the regulations provide for a ceiling of 250 milligrams of salinity per liter, something that until now “had been complying” with the state company. With this measure, that number passed to 450 milligrams per liter. However, Montero clarified: “It is not a determining limitthat it is older does not mean that it is harmful to health ”,
“With 450 milligrams, if we drink two liters we are not taking (or) a gram of salt. It is much lower than the limits that our doctors advise us, ”he specified. With the new increase in salinity announced today, Minister Rando stated, meanwhile, that there is no health risk either.
Source: Ambito
