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 study found that a single bottle of water can contain dozens or possibly even thousands of microscopic plastic particles.
Researchers performed tests on 259 individual bottles from 27 different lots across 11 brands purchased from 19 locations in 9 countries.
Preliminary tests found an average of 10.4 tiny plastic particles in each one-liter water bottle.
Further testing with a microscope and fluorescent dye detected approximately 315 microparticles per bottle, which the scientists believe are plastic as well.
In an unrelated study commissioned by an awareness and activism group called The Story of Stuff Project, Ocean Analytics analyzed 19 different bottled water brands for microparticle 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.” Orb Media performed another study, again commissioning researchers from The State University of New York at Fredonia, testing drinking water from another source: taps.
“There are certain commons that connect us all to each other,” Sherri A. Mason, Ph.D. of the State University of New York at Fredonia told Orb Media, “air, water, soil, and what we have universally found time and time again is if you contaminate any of those commons, it gets in everything.” “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.
There is also a possible link between BPA and increased blood pressure.