Study finds bottled water has more plastic than tap water or beer

TIME (5/29) reports on “a study published last year in Frontiers in Chemistry” finding that 93% of samples taken of bottled water “contained ‘microplastic’ synthetic polymer particles.”

Author Sherri Mason, a sustainability researcher at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, said, “These plastic particles are in our air, in our water and in our soil.” Mason “says focusing on bottled water is worthwhile for two reasons.” First, “most of the particles her study found in plastic water bottles turned out to be…the type of plastic used to make bottled water caps,” and second, bottled water samples had “about twice as much” plastic as tap water or beer.

Medical Comment by Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC

I think this TIME report is important to read.  I have no personal expertise with this subject, but I will  continue to watch for significant  medical information that I can share with our readers.

The link is below.  There is a brief video as well.

plastic particles in bottled water

This report is scary, but I must emphasize that ingesting liquids with such microplastic particles has not (?yet) been proven to cause specific medical issues.  However there are some indicators that suggest a variety of risks.

The TIME article begins with , “Plastic contamination is rampant in bottled water. That was the unsettling conclusion of a study published last year in Frontiers in Chemistry that analyzed samples taken from 259 bottled waters sold in several countries and found that 93% of them contained “microplastic” synthetic polymer particles.”

“These plastic particles are in our air, in our water and in our soil,” the study’s author says.

The piece also says, “Based on the existing data, we know enough to recognize that we should change how we interact with—and dispose of—plastics. ‘A lot of this is a consequence of dumping literally billions of pounds of plastic into the environment.’ “