- According to a new study, bottled water contains hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic nanoparticles.
- With the health effects of ingested plastics remaining unclear but worrying, the study suggests a far larger problem than previously understood.
- Similarly, a second new report finds far greater microplastic levels than expected in nearly every food tested.
A new study introduces a new method of detecting tiny nanoparticles — less than a thousandth the width of a human hair — of plastic in bottled water. They are so small that they are measured in billionths of a meter.
Closely following new research from Consumer Reports’ lab that found microplastics — from five millimeters to one micrometer in size — in 84 out of 85 foods tested, plastics seem to have infiltrated the human food chain to an even greater degree than previously understood.
In another recent study from researchers at Columbia University using the new nanoplastic detection method, researchers revealed 10 to 100 times more nanoplastics in bottled water than had previously been documented.
The health effects of this plastic are complex and unclear.
The new study found between 110,000 and 370,000 nanoparticles, most of which were nanoplastics, when they tested three popular bottled water brands.
Using hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, the researchers could observe particles as small as 100 nanometers in the water they examined.
The study is published in PNAS.
Dr. Sara Benedé, of the Spanish National Research Council’s Institute of Food Science Research, who was not involved in the study, said:
“Since all methods have limitations, and it is not possible to achieve a method that completely covers the detection of the great diversity of micro and nanoparticles found in the environment, any progress made in the development of methodologies that allow the…
Read the full article here