Bottled water contains more plastic particles than previously thought
- Researchers found hundreds of thousands of plastic particles in one-litre bottles of water sold in the US
- Findings show that bottled water could contain up to 100 times more plastic particles than previously estimated
A typical one-litre bottle of water contains some 240,000 plastic fragments on average, according to a new study.
Many of those fragments have historically gone undetected, the researchers determined, suggesting that health concerns linked to plastic pollution may be dramatically underestimated.
The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to evaluate bottled water for the presence of “nanoplastics” – plastic particles under 1 micrometre in length, or one-seventieth the width of a human hair.
The findings show that bottled water could contain up to 100 times more plastic particles than previously estimated, as earlier studies only accounted for microplastics, or pieces between 1 and 5,000 micrometers.
Nanoplastics pose a greater threat to human health than microplastics because they’re small enough to penetrate human cells, enter the bloodstream and impact organs.