Addicted to bottled water because it’s ‘cleaner’ than tap water? Well, my dear, you might want to rethink that argument

Examining 250 bottles from nine different countries, tests found that nearly all of them contained tiny particles of plastic, reports BBC.

The research, led by journalism organisation Orb Media, discovered that, on average, there were 10 particles of plastic per litre, nogal, each larger than the width of human hair.

Of course, companies whose brands were tested told BBC that “their bottling plants were operated to the highest standards”:

Nestle told us its own internal testing for microplastics began more than two years ago and had not detected any “above trace level”. A spokesman added that Prof Mason’s study missed key steps to avoid “false positives” but he invited Orb Media to compare methods.

Danone said it could not comment on the study because “the methodology used is unclear” but added that its own bottles had “food grade packaging”.

It pointed out that there are no regulations on microplastics or a scientific consensus on how to test for them, and it also highlighted a much smaller German study last year that found plastic particles in single use bottles but not above a statistically significant amount.

PepsiCo said Aquafina had “rigorous quality control measures sanitary manufacturing practices, filtration and other food safety mechanisms which yield a reliably safe product”.

It described the science of microplastics as “an emerging field, in its infancy, which requires further scientific analysis, peer-reviewed research and greater collaboration across many stakeholders”.

So, in other words, until there’s some sort of regulation, corporations don’t give two hoots:

Sherri Mason, a professor of chemistry at the State University of New York in Fredonia, conducted the analysis and said:

“We found [plastic] in bottle after bottle and brand after brand.

“It’s not about pointing fingers at particular brands; it’s really showing that this is everywhere, that plastic has become such a pervasive material in our society, and it’s pervading water – all of these products that we consume at a very basic level.”

While ingesting such small pieces of plastic won’t necessarily do you any harm, it’s understanding the potential implications that is important:

A surprise to researchers was the wide variety of findings – 17 of the 259 bottles tested showed no evidence of plastic but all of the rest did, with big differences even within brands.

A few bottles were found to have thousands of particles – the vast majority being the smaller ones that are “probably plastic” – but others from the same pack had virtually none.

But the question remains, where is the plastic coming from?

[source:bbc]