Every sip of bottled water you take is doing more than just hydrating you. Scientists report that bottled water exposes people to alarmingly more plastic than previously understood, according to a peer-reviewed study.
What’s happening?
The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, found that bottled water contains significantly higher concentrations of microplastics and nanoplastics than conventionally treated tap water.
The study analyzed samples from four municipal water treatment plants and six bottled water brands using scanning electron microscopy and optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy, a method capable of identifying particles smaller than 1 micrometer.
According to the authors, more than 50% of all plastic particles detected in both bottled and treated drinking water were nanoplastics, which are…