He warned from consuming water in a plastic bottle that has been kept in high temperatures or forgotten in a auto for days since temperature and plastic combination could produce carcinogenic particles.
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Bottled water is a huge industry in the U.S. Now, new tests from the journalism group Orb Media and the State University of NY have discovered tiny particles of plastic in some water.
250 bottles of water were tested by researchers in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand, and the United States.
Aquafina had a similar statement, insisting that the way the company bottles its water is clean and subject to strict quality controls. Plastics were found to be the major contaminant in 93% of samples, with major proportions of polypropylene (used to make plastic bottlecaps), nylon, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
The WHO initiative comes after a USA investigation using methods developed at the UK’s University of East Anglia (UEA) found most of the 259 bottles of water tested were contaminated with microplastics.
The study claimed that many bottled water brands just filtered municipal tap water.
“(The) data suggests contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and/or the bottling process itself”, writes the SUNY-Fredonia team.
Concentrations were as high as 10,000 plastic pieces for every liter of water. Microplastics taint all kinds of things we eat nowadays, especially if they’re from the ocean, where disintegrated plastic bottles now help form multiple garbage patches the size of Texas.
In response to Orb’s findings, Nestlé tested eight bottles from three locations.
The average bottle had 325 particles, twice as many as you’d get from tap water.
“Thus WHO, as part of its continuous review of new evidence on water quality, would 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”, he said. “You want to be drinking tap water”.
The results turned scarier when bromate levels were found to four times more than the limit set by WHO. And because plastic is not biodegradable, these particles might cause harm to human tissue. The study noticed a 200% rise in the incidence of undescended testicles.
“When considering drinking water systems, bottled water is often chosen as it is perceived to be purer”.
Emily Potter, a bottled-water researcher at Deakin University, said the local industry is booming and continues to grow. The distinction between “natural mineral water” and “bottled water” also came in through awareness campaigns and consumer activism which questioned the widespread use of the term “mineral water” for packaged water which had not been fortified with minerals.
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The study also highlights a particular problem for developing countries, where bottled water is an essential product due to the thousands of deaths each year from water-borne diseases present in natural water supplies.
