New Fear Unlocked: Hidden Mould In Reusable Bottle Leaves Woman Sick

A woman from Athens, Georgia (USA), shared a video detailing how she landed in the emergency room because of hidden mould growing in her reusable water bottle. 19-year-old Kae shared the terrifying anecdote on her TikTok account, leaving people concerned about the cleanliness of their own bottles. Kay, who goes by @kaebrie on TikTok has garnered a lot of attention from netizens, leaving her video with 3.3 million since it was posted a week ago, the New York Post reported.

Kae began the video saying, “Hey, this is a PSA to anyone who owns an Owala," Owala being the brand of the reusable bottle she owns. She explained that she forgot to take the silicone stopper out of her bottle, which she suspected was the culprit of her illness. She detailed how she fell ill multiple times since she got the bottle and had to go to the emergency room.

Mould Growing In Bottle

Kae said in the viral TikTok rant video that she regularly cleaned the bottle but she noticed that she was feeling sick often since she had been using the bottle. “I got sick in August. I had a cold. minor, you know? Lasted a week and then didn’t go away. Went to urgent care: bronchitis,” Kae exclaimed in the video. 

“Of course, they give me an inhaler and then some pills and I, of course, break out in hives as a result of the pills,” she added. Kae said that the bronchitis took "longer than it should to go away,” though she finally got better after three weeks. However, she then got a sinus infection, for which she took more medication from urgent care and felt better for a week before feeling ill again.

She said, "I had the worst sore throat of my life." She then went to urgent care for the fourth time, where the doctor looked at her throat and exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness. It’s a really angry throat. Are you in pain?” She was put on antibiotics again.

Kae decided to take off the silicone stopper on the water bottle's straw to clean, and to her horror, she found mould growing underneath. What she thought was a clean bottle had festered bacteria under the surface that she rarely opened. "This is where it goes downhill," she said.

"I know I don’t clean it as much as I should. No one does. I know it’s full of bacteria,” Kae said, irking the viewers. “I didn’t know it (silicone stopper) came out,” she justified. Netizens were shocked to hear that she rarely took out the stopper to clean underneath, while some others were shocked by the removable stopper discovery too.

Kae further narrated that the mould had embedded itself into the silicone and she was left with no choice but to replace it. She said that she bought another silicone stopper from Amazon after thoroughly cleaning the bottle and said, “Once I cleaned it … got better,” she said. “Haven’t gotten sick since … I had mould poisoning from my water bottle.” Owala bottles could cost about $10 to $13.

The company told New York Post, "One of the standout features of Owala bottles and tumblers is that they are designed to be easy to clean. The spout gasket, straw, and other parts are easily removable for thorough cleaning." However, netizens find it hard to clean the bottle, as conveyed in the comments under Kae's video. "Why do they make water bottles so hard to wash,” one said. “Me with a swollen lymph node for 6 months sipping water from an unwashed Owala," another added.