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It’s impressive that there are so many brands for something that humans have been consuming for thousands of years: Evian, Fiji, Voss, Smartwater, Aquafina, Dasani. Americans are consuming more bottled water than ever before, despite years of research showing that bottled water is no safer to drink than tap water. Sales of bottled water reach billions of dollars.
While people cite convenience and taste as well as perceived safety as reasons for preferring tap water over bottled water, the fear factor surrounding tap water remains a driving force. It won’t help if an emergency such as a flood causes contamination of tap water, or if an investigation finds problems with lead pipes in some areas, but municipal water supplies are regularly tested. It is safe to drink a glass of water in most of the United States. From the faucet.
And now, new research on nanoplastics in three popular bottled water brands is putting even more data into your bottled vs. tap water choices.
Researchers at Columbia University used a new laser-guided technique to detect nanoplastics that had previously evaded detection due to their tiny size. This new technology enables the detection, counting, analysis and chemical structure of nanoparticles and has led to the discovery of seven major types of plastics: polyamide, polypropylene, polyethylene, polymethyl methacrylate, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate.
In contrast to a 2018 study that found about 300 plastic particles in an average liter of bottled water, a study published in January 2024 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that between three brands The study found an average of 240,000 nanoplastic particles per liter bottle. (The survey did not indicate brand names.)
In contrast to microplastics, nanoplastics are too small to be seen under a microscope. It is precisely their size that has experts worried about them, as they are small enough to invade human cells and potentially disrupt cellular processes.
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Researchers in Colombia have discovered that bottled water contains hundreds of thousands of previously uncounted plastic particles. These are particles small enough to enter the bloodstream and reach organs directly. https://t.co/NoC70dLakV
“Currently micro- and nanoplastics are being found in human placenta. They are being found in human lung tissue. They are being found in human feces. They are being found in human blood.” study co-author Phoebe Stapleton, associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Rutgers University’s Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, told CNN Health.
We know that nanoplastics are entering our bodies. There hasn’t been enough research yet on what that means for our health, and there are more questions than answers. How many nanoplastics does it take to cause damage or disease? What types of damage or disease can they cause? Are their effects cumulative? There is no answer to this question yet.
That doesn’t mean you don’t need to worry. We know that exposure to certain levels of microplastics has been shown to negatively impact cell viability. Because nanoplastics are even smaller, does that mean they’re more likely to damage cells? Science is still figuring that out.
According to Dr. Sara Benede of the Spanish National Research Council’s Institute of Food Science, it’s not just the plastic itself that can cause damage, but what the plastic can do with it. “[Microparticles and nanoparticles] “They have the ability to bind all kinds of compounds when in contact with liquids, and therefore act as carriers for all kinds of substances, including environmental pollutants, toxins, antibiotics, microorganisms, etc.,” Dr. Benede told Medical News Today. told.
Where does this plastic in water come from? The study focused on bottled water, which is most often packaged in plastic. Filters used to filter water before bottling are also often made of plastic.
Is it possible that some of these nanoplastics were already in the water from their original source? Again, research in this area is constantly evolving, but microplastics are , rivers, and other freshwater sources, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that nanoplastics may also be making their way into freshwater ecosystems. However, since microplastics have been detected at much higher levels in bottled water than in tap water, we believe that most of the nanoplastics likely originate from the bottling process and packaging rather than from freshwater sources. No wonder.
However, the reality is still unknown.
“Based on other studies, we expected that most of the microplastics in bottled water would come from leaks in the plastic bottles themselves, which are typically made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic,” said the first author. said Naixin Qian, a chemistry doctoral student at Columbia University. he told CNN Health. “But we found that there are actually many different types of plastic in a water bottle, and different types of plastic have different size distributions. PET particles were larger. But other particles were much smaller, down to 200 nanometers.”
We need to drink water, and we need to drink water that is safe. At this time, there are many environmental reasons to avoid bottled water unless absolutely necessary and choose tap water instead. The presence of hundreds of thousands of nanoplastics in bottled water could be just another reason to make the switch, even if more research is needed.
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