EBay yanked water because of poison claims

Carol Christian, January 23, 2009, Fort McMurray Today -- The very reason the Sierra Youth Coalition put a bottle of Athabasca water on eBay for auction is what caused it having it pulled off the site.

“Essentially this comes down to an issue of member safety,” said Andrew Sloss, country manager for eBay Canada, Monday. “We take the safety and security of our users very seriously. This particular item was one that we had a problem with in respect to the hazardous materials policy we have on the site.

“Given that the item referred to arsenic, mercury and volatile organic compounds, we felt it contravened that policy. We needed to take it down for that reason.”

Sloss acknowledged the concern about charitable fundraising, the original reason the coalition was given for the suspension of the auction, was a secondary cause.

Coalition executive director Youri Cormier had earlier said eBay officials deemed it as fundraising for a charitable cause, which is allowed with restrictions on the site.

“We do obviously want and encourage charities to come on the site, but we require, again, for trust and safety reasons, for charities to vet themselves through a process we have,” added Sloss. “Once they do that, they’re more than welcome to list on the site.”

The coalition doesn’t have a final answer yet about whether eBay will allow it to repost the bottle of water, said Cormier. He added the auction company, however, did provide the coalition with “really interesting information’ about why they took it out.

“They started off saying the reason why they stopped it in the first place was that whole question of charity,” he said. But once he explained the coalition’s actual non-profit status, “then they answered, ‘Yeah, we’re concerned about the water quality.’”

Cormier has also sent eBay a toxicology report “so they have all the information,” he said.

“We’re trying to be as transparent as possible with them.”

Cormier noted other items on eBay, such as batteries, may contain more toxins than are in the water.

“This is not hazardous waste. It’s just contaminated water people are drinking,” said Cormier. “It’s the long-term effects that are dangerous, not necessarily the short-term immediate consumption.”

As for the auction, eBay considers it “null and void,” according to Sloss. So the $115 that ended up being the highest bid when the bottle was pulled Sunday can stay in the potential buyer’s pocket.

However, Cormier said it’s within eBay’s power to allow the coalition to repost the bottle of water.

Cormier wouldn’t say if he thought eBay’s pulling the bottle for the same reason the coalition was highlighting would be a boost to the cause.

“We’ll have to wait and see what they say,” he said. “Either way this cookie crumbles, we’ve already succeeded in doing what we wanted to do: we’ve raised money. We’ve raised awareness. We got people talking about it.”

That money, Cormier added, has come from outside external buyers “willing to help us out without eBay.”