Bottled water can contain thousands of tiny plastic particles: study

By Imogen Howse via SWNS

One bottle of water can contain hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles, warns a new study.

They can trigger health issues by entering vital organs, say scientists.

Nanoplastics – formed when plastics break down into progressively smaller bits – are being consumed by humans across the globe every single day.

Concerns about the impact this could have on our health are growing, as nanoplastics are so miniscule that they can pass into our body and invade our bloodstream or even individual cells.

They can travel into our body via a person’s lungs or intestines and travel onwards to other organs – such as the heart and the brain.

Frighteningly, nanoplastics can even cross through the placenta and into the bodies of unborn babies.

However, researchers have previously struggled to determine how these particles will affect us – something which inspired one research team, whose study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, to dig a little deeper.

Scientists from Columbia University tested three popular brands of bottled water sold in the United States – and, using newly refined lasers, analyzed the plastic particles they contained down to just 100 nanometers in size.

To put this into perspective, a single human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

They discovered that, in each liter of bottled water, there were an average of 240,000 tiny plastic particles – a number 100 times greater than some previous estimates.

Nanoplastics made up 90 percent of these particles and 10 percent were microplastics.

One common nanoplastic found was polyethylene terephthalate or PET.

“This was not surprising, since that is what many water bottles are made of,” said study co-author Professor Beizhan Yan, an environmental chemist at Columbia.

He continued: “PET is also used for bottled sodas, sports drinks, and products such as ketchup and mayonnaise.

“It probably gets into the water as bits slough off when the bottle is squeezed or gets exposed to heat.”

Another plastic particle found in bottles of water, and one which outnumbered PET, was polyamide – a type of nylon.

“Ironically,” said Prof Yan, “this probably comes from plastic filters used to supposedly purify the water before it is bottled.”

The other common plastics found included polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, and polymethyl methacrylate, all of which are used in various industrial processes.

However, something the researchers found “disturbing” was that these named plastics only accounted for around 10 percent of all the nanoparticles found in the samples. They have no idea what the rest are.

Unlike natural organic matter, most plastics do not break down into relatively benign substances.

Instead, they simply divide and redivide into smaller and smaller particles of the same chemical composition – meaning there is no theoretical limit to how small they can get.

This makes it almost impossible to establish just how many nanoplastics exist in any one space.

However, the team from Columbia are determined to use their new findings to better understand where else nanoplastics exist.

Biophysicist and study co-author Wei Min explained: “Previously this was just a dark area, uncharted.

“But there is a huge world of nanoplastics to be studied.

“The study of nanoplastics matters because, the smaller things are, the more easily they can get inside us.”

The team plans to investigate tap water, which has previously been shown to contain microplastics, although in far smaller quantities than bottled water.

Professor Yan is also looking into the microplastics and nanoplastics that end up in wastewater when people do laundry.

By his count so far, there are millions of particles per 10-pound load.

The study comes as worldwide plastic production continues to pose a threat to the environment – with 400 million metric tons produced each year.

More than 30 million tons are dumped yearly in water or on land, and many products made with plastics – such as synthetic clothes – shed particles while being used.

Experts are still working to determine the health effects this can have on humans.