Even though the quarter of a million microscopically tiny plastic particles found in an average liter of bottled water may not be harmful, the researchers who made this discovery have stated that it has caused them to reduce their consumption of bottled water. Researchers examined samples from three different brands of bottled water using laser-powered microscopes and found that each liter contains between 110,000 and 400,000 bits of plastic.
Many are unaware of it, but your bottled water can contain up to 240,000 Tiny Plastic Particles
Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that this amounts to an average of almost 240,000 tiny particles of plastic. Naixin Qian, the primary study author, told NBC News that all three of the products were well-known brands purchased from a major national retailer, although the products under examination were not identified. Ninety percent of the plastic particles were nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics. According to the study’s authors, nanoplastics are thought to be more harmful because their smaller size makes them more likely to penetrate the human body than microplastics.
Microplastics (MPs) are plastic particles that are smaller than 5 mm in diameter, but nanoplastics (NPs) have a diameter that is between 1 and 100 or 1000 nm, according to the National Library of Medicine. For comparison, a centimeter is made up of 10 million nanometers. In addition to the water businesses’ filtering system, which is meant to eliminate contaminants, the researchers thought the plastic originated from the bottle itself. Moreover, toxicologist Phoebe Stapleton, a co-author of the study, told NBC News that the possible health impact is being examined. We don’t know how harmful it is or whether it is.
However, a study that was published in the National Library of Medicine stated that the digestive, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems are among the systems in the human body that microplastics can impact, based on the results of cellular and animal experiments. Microplastics can result in chemical toxicity, which is the absorption and buildup of environmental pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals, according to that study. The researchers have decided to reduce their use of bottled water as a result of their findings. Her coworker Wei Min, a chemist, told NBC News that he has cut back on his use of bottled water, while Stapleton stated that she is now depending on filtered tap water.
Water filtering devices have the potential to add microplastics into the water supply; thus, as chemist Beizhan Yan, a co-author of the study, explained, there’s just no win. Furthermore, microplastics were found in human cardiac tissue last August, and according to a June 2023 study published in U.S. News & World Report, people are inhaling the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association’s senior medical officer, indicated that the presence of microplastics in the body is unclear, but the time of exposure is critical. Rizzo questioned whether making plastics safer would assist with this problem.
New research says that more than 64% of your bottled water is just tap water
Millions of Americans buy bottled water because they believe it is purer, safer, and healthier than tap water. However, they frequently learn that major companies just fool consumers, putting a financial strain on them and tricking them into purchasing a product they cannot afford. According to a recent survey, municipal water supplies—the same tap water that the majority of people already have access to—provide approximately 64% of the bottled water consumed in the United States.
Additionally, some companies hardly purify this water before bottling it, and occasionally their products have levels of pollution that are too high. This presents significant questions regarding transparency and whether or not customers are receiving what they paid for.
