The study indicated that the contamination was partly the result of plastic packaging, and partly the fault of the bottling process.
“Bottled water brands are packaged in plastic PET bottles.
This new report adds dimensions which need to be clarified.
If they do not do this, there is psychological damage that can be deep and counter-productive to brand intent,” he added.
The study was carried out on more than 250 water bottles sourced from 11 brands in nine countries, including India.
Brands tested included 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), and Wahaha (Hangzhou Wahaha Group).
When approached, most brands vouched for the safety process that their water goes through but did not touch upon the bottle themselves being an issue.
We stand by the safety of our products, and welcome continued study of plastics in our environment.
We are interested in being part of any serious scientific research into micro-plastics.
All Bisleri production facilities have their own quality testing labs that ensure that every Bisleri product is made as per guidelines set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and WHO (World Health Organization) We are currently investigating this issue.

The world’s leading brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny plastic particles that are likely seeping in during the packaging process, according to a major study across nine countries published Wednesday.
“Widespread contamination” with plastic was found in the study, led by microplastic researcher Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia, according to a summary released by Orb Media, a United States-based non-profit media collective.
“In this study, 65 percent of the particles we found were actually fragments and not fibers,” Mason told AFP.
“I think it is coming through the process of bottling the water.
I think that most of the plastic that we are seeing is coming from the bottle itself, it is coming from the cap, it is coming from the industrial process of bottling the water.” Particle concentration ranged from “zero to more than 10,000 likely plastic particles in a single bottle,” said the report.
Experts cautioned that the extent of the risk to human health posed by such contamination remains unclear.
“We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies.” Time to ditch plastic?
Previous research by Orb Media has found plastic particles in tap water, too, but on a smaller scale.
The three-month study used a technique developed by the University of East Anglia’s School of Chemistry to “see” microplastic particles by staining them using fluorescent Nile Red dye, which makes plastic fluorescent when irradiated with blue light.
“It’s more urgent now than ever before to make plastic water bottles a thing of the past.” AB

(CBS NEWS) — More than 90 percent of some of the most popular bottled water brands contain tiny particles of plastic.
Tests on more than 250 bottles from 11 brands showed contamination with plastic including polypropylene, nylon and polyethylene terephthalate.
Plastic particles in the 0.10 millimeter size range were found in bottled water at an average of 10.4 per liter, while smaller particles likely to be plastic averaged 314.6 per liter.
"Orb’s findings suggest that a person who drinks a liter of bottled water a day might be consuming tens of thousands of microplastic particles each year," it said.
German bottler Gerolsteiner said its tests showed "significantly" lower qualities of microparticles per liter, and Nestle’s tests of six bottles from three locations showed between zero and five plastic particles per liter, according to Orb’s account.
The other manufacturers declined to participate.
The health ramifications are far from clear, but the findings are part of the impetus behind a World Health Organization plan to review the potential risks of drinking plastic in water, according to the BBC.
Microbeads — tiny plastic beads found in some beauty products that were bannedin the U.S. in 2015 — are another source of plastics in water.
Microbeads were intentionally put in products to make them "scrubby," while microfibers and microplastics are unintended byproducts, noted Patty Lovera, assistant director at advocacy groups Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action.
The concern about plastic contained in the plastic bottles is somewhat ironic considering the bottles themselves are inefficient and environmentally unsound, given that the majority are not recycled, Lovera added.

A single bottle of water can contain dozens — or even thousands — of tiny plastic particles, according to a news story that’s prompted the World Health Organization to launch its own review.
Tests on more than 250 bottles showed almost all had contamination from microplastic particles that included polypropylene, nylon, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), according to a story in Orb, a nonprofit journalism organization.
In all, scientists working with the publication found plastic in 93 percent of the samples.
A microplastic is generally defined as particles less than the size of a sesame seed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Orb tested 11 popular name brands, including Nestle Pure Life, Aquafina, Evian and Dasani.
Plastics — which can come from a range of items — are the most prevalent type of debris found in the oceans and Great Lakes in the U.S., NOAA said.
Orb conducted the tests with the State University of New York for plastic particles in the .10 millimeter size range — or particles about the size of a hair.
The tests, using an infrared microscope, showed a global average of 10.4 plastic particles per liter.
Nestle Pure Life had the highest maximum number of particles per liter at more than 10,000.
The company said its tests showed between zero and five plastic particles per liter.

The world’s leading brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny plastic particles that are likely seeping in during the packaging process, according to a major study across nine countries published Wednesday.
"Widespread contamination" with plastic was found in the study, led by microplastic researcher Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia, according to a summary released by Orb Media, a US-based non-profit media collective.
Researchers tested 250 bottles of water in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand, and the United States.
"I think it is coming through the process of bottling the water.
Even smaller particles were more common — averaging about 325 per liter.
Experts cautioned that the extent of the risk to human health posed by such contamination remains unclear.
"We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies."
– Time to ditch plastic?
– Previous research by Orb Media has found plastic particles in tap water, too, but on a smaller scale.
"It’s more urgent now than ever before to make plastic water bottles a thing of the past."

A recently released study tested 259 water bottles from 11 brands sold across nine countries, including the United States, and found that 93% of those tested contained microplastic contamination.
Researcher Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia told AFP that 65% of the plastic particles found were "fragments" of plastic, and included the plastic used to make some bottle caps.
More: 94% of U.S. tap water contaminated by plastic fibers — including from the faucets at Trump Tower More: Our trash is harming the deepest fish in the ocean "I think it is coming through the process of bottling the water," Mason told AFP.
So, is it dangerous to drink bottled water?
Researchers caution that it’s unclear what effect microplastics can have on the human body.
And, microplastics have been found in everything ranging from fish and shellfish found at the super market to tap water.
"There are connections to increases in certain kinds of cancer to lower sperm count to increases in conditions like ADHD and autism," said Mason.
"We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies."
The World Health Organization confirmed to BBC that it is launching a review into the potential risks of drinking bottled water.
USA TODAY has reached out to the International Bottled Water Association for comment.

The brands considered by the study included Aquafina, Bisleri and Nestle Pure Life among others.
It found that 93% of the samples were contaminated with plastic particles.
If you included the smaller particles (6.5-100 μm), the average rose up to 325 microplastic particles per litre.
Researchers came to the conclusion that “contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and/or the bottling process itself.” The study found that the polymers found in the water (54%) matched the make of common plastic used to make the cap of the water bottles.
“Averaging across lots by brand, Nestle Pure Life and Gerolsteiner showed the highest average densities at 930 and 807 MPP/L, respectively, while San Pellegrino and Minalba showed the lowest microplastic contamination with 30.0 and 63.1 MPP/L, respectively,” the study says.
Interestingly, when the researchers studied samples of the same brand which came in glass bottles instead of plastic, there was considerably less plastic contamination in the water packaged in glass bottles.
“This indicates that some of the microplastic contamination is likely coming from the water source, but a larger contribution might be originating from the packaging itself,” the study says.
“We found roughly twice as many plastic particles (>100 um) within bottled water as compared to tap water on average (10.4 vs. 5.45 particles/L).
While fibers made of 97% of the microplastics within the tap water study, they only composed 13% of the particles within bottled water,” the study says.
“[…] the data seems to suggest that at least some of the plastic contamination may be coming from the industrial process of bottling the water itself.

Drinking from a plastic water bottle likely means ingesting microplastic particles, a new study claims, prompting fresh concerns — and calls for scientific research — on the possible health implications of widespread plastics pollution.
A study carried out on more than 250 water bottles sourced from 11 brands in nine different countries revealed that Microplastic contamination was nearly universal, found in more than 90% of the samples.
The study, by journalism organization Orb Media and researchers at the State University of New York at Fredonia, found an average of 10.4 microplastic particles about the width of a human hair per liter.
That’s about twice the level of contamination discovered in the group’s earlier study on the ubiquitous plastic contamination in tap water across the globe, with the highest rate found in the U.S.
Previous studies have found that a large portion of the microplastic particles found in our oceans, lakes and rivers, as well as in fish stomachs, can be traced back to the washing of synthetic clothes.
In the case of bottled water, Orb’s new study indicated contamination was partly the result of plastic packaging, and partly the fault of the bottling process.
The survey included brands like Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestlé and San Pellegrino.
It’s unclear what effect, if any, this consumption of tiny bits of plastics has on human health.
As much as 90% of ingested plastic could pass through a human body, but some of it may end up lodged in the gut, or traveling through the lymphatic system, according to research by the European Food Safety Authority.
“We don’t know all the chemicals in plastics, even… There’s so many unknowns here,” Jane Muncke, chief scientist at the Zurich-based Food Packaging Forum, told Orb.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will assess the latest research into the spread and impact of so-called microplastics – particles that are small enough to be ingested.
There is no evidence that microplastics can undermine human health but the WHO wants to assess the state of knowledge.
It comes after journalism organisation Orb Media found plastic particles in many major brands of bottled water.
The study screened more than 250 bottles of water from 11 different brands bought in nine countries – the largest investigation of its kind.
Bruce Gordon, coordinator of the WHO’s global work on water and sanitation, told BBC News that the key question was whether a lifetime of eating or drinking particles of plastic could have an effect.
"When we think about the composition of the plastic, whether there might be toxins in it, to what extent they might carry harmful constituents, what actually the particles might do in the body – there’s just not the research there to tell us.
"We normally have a ‘safe’ limit but to have a safe limit, to define that, we need to understand if these things are dangerous, and if they occur in water at concentrations that are dangerous."
Mr Gordon said that he did not want to alarm anyone, and also emphasised that a far greater waterborne threat comes in countries where supplies can be contaminated with sewage.
But he said he recognised that people hearing about the presence of microplastics in their drinking water would turn to the WHO for advice.
"The public are obviously going to be concerned about whether this is going to make them sick in the short term and the long term,” he said.

Shocking Study shows that Nearly All Bottled Water may Contain Innumerable Plastic Bits and Pieces Research in Australia shows that consumers of mineral water in plastic bottles ought to pay closer attention to what they chug-a-lug so carelessly.
According to the seminal study, most of these plastic mineral water bottles contain microplastic beads that are detrimental to health and well-being.
While more research needs to be done to confirm the raw findings, it is a fact that all is not well regarding these so-called healthy alternatives to tap water.
They came from 19 different locales which were situated in 9 countries of the global village.
In every single liter of the samples of water taken from these bottles, there were over 10.4 plastic particles.
Over 93% of the brands contained plastic microbeads made from polypropylene, nylon and polyethylene terephthalate (this is found in PET bottles).
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These were commonly found in supermarkets all over “The Land Down Under”.
The mean number of particles per liter of bottled water was 325.