The bottled water, which originates in a mineral spring in France, has been found to contain benzene, a carcinogen.

The company had previously said that a worker had mistakenly used a cleaning agent containing benzene to clean some production equipment.

Replies: There are very few consumer products that contain benzene any more - not even paints and varnishes any more.

Now they tell us Perrier contains benzene.

(1) Tobacco smoke contains benzene and accounts for nearly half the national exposure to benzene.

Consumer-grade products generally no longer contain benzene because of its link to certain cancers.

High power format, an oil-refining product containing little benzene, it is used for ottofuel blending.

Benzene and any substance containing benzene in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.1% by mass, but excluding:

Petroleum, its distillates such as gasoline, auto and truck exhausts also contain benzene.

They acknowledged that the company's spring waters naturally contain benzene but said it was usually filtered out.