3-Month Perrier Sales Halt Seen Possible : Health: The American importer of the French mineral water believes that ‘human error’ caused the benzene contamination.

The American importer of Perrier said Saturday that it will stop selling the French mineral water for two to three months while the company seeks the source of a cancer-causing chemical that showed up in tests of the product last week.

Company officials believe that “human error” was involved in the contamination of the water, possibly in the production of its famed green bottles, or in the shipping from its plant in Vergeze, France.

But Ronald V. Davis, president of Perrier Group of America Inc., said that he would not elaborate until the company is certain of the cause.

Davis, speaking at a news conference at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Greenwich, Conn., called the contamination “a very freak accident” that he said did not appear to involve criminal intent.

Although the source of the water--a natural spring in Vergeze --has been found to be free of contamination, Perrier is temporarily shutting down its entire production operation in France and is blocking further shipments to the United States.

On Friday, Perrier recalled an estimated 72 million bottles of the mineral water from stores and restaurants across the nation after a relatively small amount of benzene was found in a sample in North Carolina.

The Food and Drug Administration said that consumers of Perrier faced no immediate danger to their health because the levels of benzene found were so minute.

FDA tests of 13 product samples found benzene levels from 12 to 20 parts per billion, an amount that nevertheless exceeds the federal standard of 5 parts per billion.

Benzene, a colorless, flammable chemical used in making paint, detergent and other products, has been found to cause leukemia and blood disorders in people exposed to high doses for lengthy periods.

No recall of Perrier has been ordered in Europe, even though Davis said it was possible that the same problem that afflicted the water sold in the United States also affected water sold in Europe.

Perrier is the best-selling carbonated, or “sparkling,” water in the United States, with sales of about $160 million a year.

“We are in the business of selling purity,” Davis said. “We think that this decision is right because we think in the long run our consumers will come back,” he said. Davis said it would take between two months and three months to import enough new Perrier from France to resume sales in the United States.

The company will lose about $40 million in sales if the product is off the market for three months, he said, in addition to any lost business owing to potential damage to the product’s reputation.

William F. Deal, executive vice president of the International Bottled Water Assn. in Alexandria, Va., said that the Perrier incident would strengthen his group’s argument that the FDA should establish its own standards for acceptable benzene levels in food and beverages.

Although the FDA does do random testing for benzene, he said, it relies on standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.