- Tests reveal bottled water contains nearly twice as many microplastic particles per liter as tap water. The contamination was thought to originate from the manufacturing process of the bottles and caps
- Researchers tested 259 bottles of 11 popular bottled water brands for the presence of microscopic plastic. On average, the bottled water tested contained 325 pieces of microplastic per liter
- Only 17 of 259 bottles were found to be free of microplastic particles, and none of the brands tested consistently free of plastic contaminants. The worst offender was Nestlé Pure Life, the most contaminated sample of which contained 10,390 particles per liter
- In response to these findings, the World Health Organization vowed to launch a safety review to assess the potential short- and long-term health risks of consuming microplastic in water
- A report by the U.K. Government Office for Science warned that plastic debris littering the world’s oceans — 70 percent of which does not biodegrade — is likely to triple by 2025 unless radical steps are taken to curb pollution
This article was previously published in April 2018 and has been updated with new information.
Plastic has become an incredibly harmful convenience, now threatening environmental and human health alike, and in more ways than one. There’s the issue of bulk plastics in our landfills, where it will remain indefinitely since most plastic does not biodegrade,1 and microplastics — microscopic pieces of degraded plastic — which now choke waterways across the globe and contaminate drinking water and sea life.
On top of that, there are the chemicals used in the production of plastic, many of which have hormone-mimicking activity, thereby threatening animal and human health, including reproductive health. Disturbingly, recent tests reveal most bottled water contains microplastic pollution2 — contamination thought to originate from the manufacturing process of the bottles and caps.
As shown in the featured video, in 2018 a CBC Marketplace investigation of bottled water found plastic contamination, including rayon and polyethylene, in 30 of 50 water bottles tested. Plastic was even found in bottled water that was sold in a glass container.
Researchers at the State University of New York also tested 259 bottles of 11 popular bottled water brands for the presence of microscopic plastic on behalf of Orb Media, a nonprofit journalism organization. Brands included Aquafina, Nestle Pure Life, Evian, Dasani and San Pelligerino. On average, the bottled water tested contained 325 pieces of microplastic per liter; just over 10 of those pieces were at least 100 microns in size, the rest were smaller.
Most of these bits and pieces are so tiny they’re invisible to the naked eye. To reveal them, the researchers used a special dye that binds to plastic, combined with infrared laser and blue light. Using orange-colored glasses, you can see the particles appear light up like stars in the night sky when the water sample is viewed under a microscope.
Humans and the money system. If someone can make money then they will. with no respect towards other creatures and humans have lost all interconnectedness with the bigger picture…just all about making money.
Man is stuck in his cave…Plato and the man in the cave.
Im about to go Hermit some days
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/10/2/265
Its everywhere. A couple of New Zealand water bottled companies one from Coromandel had micro plastics….
It was evaluated that all those samples had traces of microplastics.
Funny cause like my mum said…”older generations recycled and reused everything glass jars for preserving etc…we are the throw away generation.
But it’s not just water. Any plastic bottle or container or lid will have a film of fine plastic dust on the inside and outside of it. This film comes from dust created as the raw plastic pellets used to make the bottles rub against equipment and each other as they pass through the machinery used to manufacture the pellets and the bottles. There will also be dust created from the bottles travelling through their manufacturing machinery and the filling machinery This dust will travel through a processing facility and end up everywhere, Sure you can wash the bottles but there is only so much you can wash off and out of a bottle. So think about the same microplastics in sauce bottles, spread jars, milk bottles and all plastic drink bottles, The greatest exposure will come from items you consume the whold bottle, jar or tub of in one sitting. A sauce bottle will be low exposure as you only consume a small amount, but a soft drink bottle will be high expsore as you likely drink the whole bottle in one sitting.
It’s like people that are amazed to find steel fiings in grain and seed products such as oats. If you run a magnet through a large sack of oats it will come out a little bit furry with steel filings. This is from the product passing through the processing plant and wearing the augers and bins away, all that material worn off ends up somewhere. I was amazed when I was running maintenance at a seed factory at just how worn things like the spiral blade of an auger in a machine hopper wil get. It will start off 10+mm thick and wear paper thin.
You could of course put plastic through a refraction system and burn the resulting fuel to release elemnets of microplastics that are even smaller. After all plastic is basically oil.
THIS SELF SUFFICIENT FAMILY MAKES THEIR OWN FUEL FROM PLASTIC!
“Pollution is nothing but resources we’re not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.”
― R. Buckminster Fuller, I Seem To Be A Verb