Microplastics Found in 90% of Bottled Water

By Heather Callaghan, Editor

WHO launches health review after microplastic fibers found twice as high in popular bottled water brands versus tap.

Although people are grossly over-paying for shelf-stable, bottled water – they are gulping down double the plastic nanoparticles than they would if they drank tap, which is actually saying a lot.

Previous studies have found invisible plastic nanoparticles in tap water. Perhaps more alarming, microplastics have merged with soil to the point where there is concern about vegetation.

The new review by WHO launched into the dangers of microplastics in bottled water analyzed 259 bottles from 19 locations in nine countries. The study looked at 11 bottled water brands found an average of 325 plastic particles for every liter of water sold.

The brands tested were:

1. Aqua (Danone)
2. Aquafina (PepsiCo)
3. Bisleri (Bisleri International)
4. Dasani (Coca-Cola)
5. Epura (PepsiCo)
6. Evian (Danone)
7. Gerolsteiner (Gerolsteiner Brunnen)
8. Minalba (Grupo Edson Queiroz)
9. Nestlé Pure Life (Nestlé)
10. San Pellegrino (Nestlé)
11. Wahaha (Hangzhou Wahaha Group)

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The Guardian reports:

In one bottle of Nestlé Pure Life, concentrations were as high as 10,000 plastic pieces per litre of water. Of the 259 bottles tested, only 17 were free of plastics, according to the study.

Scientists based at the State University of New York in Fredonia were commissioned by journalism project Orb Media to analyse the bottled water.

The scientists wrote they had “found roughly twice as many plastic particles within bottled water” compared with their previous study of tap water, reported by the Guardian.

According to the new study, the most common type of plastic fragment found was polypropylene – the same type of plastic used to make bottle caps. The bottles analysed were bought in the US, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Lebanon, Kenya and Thailand.

SEE: Shocking Study Shows 170 MILLION Americans Drinking Radioactive Water And Gov’t Is Hiding It

Photograph: Abigail Barrows

Dr Andrew Mayes, a University of East Anglia scientist, developed the Nile red technique. Its a dye that fluoresces particles in the water, but tends to stick to plastics while leaving natural substances un-dyed.

The study has not been published in a journal and has not been through scientific peer review, but Mayes told Orb Media that he was “satisfied that it has been applied carefully and appropriately, in a way that I would have done it in my lab.”

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The Guardian also notes:

A second unrelated analysis, also just released, was commissioned by campaign group Story of Stuff and examined 19 consumer bottled water brands in the US.It also found plastic microfibres were widespread.

The brand Boxed Water contained an average of 58.6 plastic fibres per litre. Ozarka and Ice Mountain, both owned by Nestlé, had concentrations at 15 and 11 pieces per litre, respectively. Fiji Water had 12 plastic fibres per litre.

Abigail Barrows, who carried out the research for Story of Stuff in her laboratory in Maine, said there were several possible routes for the plastics to be entering the bottles.

“Plastic microfibres are easily airborne. Clearly that’s occurring not just outside but inside factories. It could come in from fans or the clothing being worn,” she said.

…

Jacqueline Savitz, of campaign group Oceana, said: “We know plastics are building up in marine animals and this means we too are being exposed, some of us every day. Between the microplastics in water, the toxic chemicals in plastics and the end-of-life exposure to marine animals, it’s a triple whammy.”

Previous work reported by Orb Media showed that the fashion industry was a contributing factor to plastic nanoparticles in waterways. Obviously, the ubiquity of plastic pollution contributes to plastics in drinking water.

As you might imagine these corporations did not appreciate being listed in the report and have either criticized the study method (Nestlé) or held to their standards claiming that there’s only so much a company can do but that there will always be some low levels of plastic if they are airborne (Coca-Cola). Gerolsteiner maintains that “plastics in water from their own analyses were lower than those allowed in pharmaceutical products.”

As far as purification goes – one innovation is tiny graphene membranes and pulling the water from air.

See our SPECIAL REPORT: An American Water Crisis Is Just Around The Corner And No One Is Talking About It