It turns out there may be something in those store-bought bottles that’s worth worrying about as well.
Project Orb Media, a nonprofit, global journalism organization focusing on food, water, energy, health, education, environment, trade and governance, commissioned scientists at the State University of New York in Fredonia to analyze bottled water.
The brands tested were: Aqua (Danone) Aquafina (PepsiCo) Bisleri (Bisleri International) Dasani (Coca-Cola) Epura (PepsiCo) Evian (Danone) Gerolsteiner (Gerolsteiner Brunnen) Minalba (Grupo Edson Queiroz) Nestlé Pure Life (Nestlé) San Pellegrino (Nestlé) Wahaha (Hangzhou Wahaha Group) Preliminary tests found an average of 10.4 tiny plastic particles in each one-liter water bottle.
The research determined that Boxed Water, Evian, Fiji and Ozarka had the highest levels of plastic microfiber contamination.
“Although we don’t fully understand yet the health implications of consuming microplastic,” Abigail Barrows of Ocean Analytics told The Story of Stuff, “the preliminary results of this study show that people are directly ingesting plastic particles when drinking most types of bottled water.” Not Just Bottled Water Orb Media performed another study, again commissioning researchers from The State University of New York at Fredonia, testing drinking water from another source: taps.
More than 80 percent of the samples collected on five continents tested positive for the presence of plastic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched its own review of these recent findings.
A spokesperson stated that the organization is aware of this emerging area of concern even though there is not yet evidence of an effect on human health.
“As part of our continuous review of new evidence on water quality, we will review the very scarce available evidence with the objective of identifying evidence gaps, and establishing a research agenda to inform a more thorough risk assessment,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to the National Post.
BPA, a synthetic compound found in some plastics, has been shown to have possible effects on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.