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Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study
- sparrish 8y agoOr not.. "believed to be microplastics" "there is a chance the Nile Red dye is adhering to another unknown substance other than plastic." So it may, or may not be microplastics that they found/counted.
- dumbfounder 8y agoNot only that, but we have no idea what the "safe levels" are. They say it's only roughly double that of tap water, which doesn't seem alarming to me.
- craftyguy 8y agoThat's not too surprising, given that this problem of consuming plastics is a relatively new one. There likely hasn't been enough time to fully understand the implications of eating tiny plastic particles. I doubt that they are all expelled from your body with other wastes given that this isn't something your body naturally deals with. More research is needed.
- makira 8y agoFull quote: "Mason's team was able to identify specific plastics over 100 microns (0.10 mm) in size but not smaller particles. According to experts contacted by CBC News, there is a chance the Nile Red dye is adhering to another unknown substance other than plastic." Key point: they're unsure about the smaller particles, but they're sure about the bigger ones. There is microplastics in the samples.
- Siecje 8y agoWhat else could it be? I'm going to assume it wasn't found in the baseline test and it is something that shouldn't be there. There isn't a whole lot to "manufacturing" water.
- Jyaif 8y agoAccording to them: Avoid Nestle Pure Life. San Pellegrino, Evian, and Dasani are OK.
- notheguyouthink 8y agoWish I knew where Kirkland stood on this. I drink that stuff like... water.
- drubio 8y agoKirkland sources their products with regional/national producers and rebrands them. So the contents of your Kirkland water depend on which Costco you purchase it from. Source: A friend of mine brokers deals with producers to rebrand them as Kirkland products. Perishables like 'Kirkland' Ham, 'Kirkland' Cheese, 'Kirkland' Ice Cream are packaged by different companies depending on the Costco (Costco Canada, Costco East Coast, Costco West Coast). Where as other stuff like 'Kirkland' jeans are brokered globally. Water likely falls at the national/regional level with one of the major brands, so 'Kirkland' water in Canada is likely a different kind of 'Kirkland' water sold in California.
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoI wonder if any supermarkets just ship empty bottles and fill it on location?
- dom96 8y agoBut which Nestle Pure Life? They're not all sourced from the same place, are they?
- jaclaz 8y ago>According to them: Avoid Nestle Pure Life. San Pellegrino, Evian, and Dasani are OK. Naah, water is usually bottled locally, they tested some brands in: U.S., Kenya, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico and Thailand (and called it "global"), but a same brand may - even in the same country - come from a different spring or bottling plant, so you are never "safe" (nor "in danger") because of this or that brand. Just in case the actual "paper" (actualy only a "report"): https://orbmedia.org/sites/default/files/FinalBottledWaterReport.pdf https://orbmedia.org/sites/default/files/FinalBottledWaterRe... And as a side note/observation, the classification of any plastic particle smaller than 5 millimeters as "microplastics" has been given (and it makes sense) in the context of marine/ocean related sciences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics it makes (to me) little sense to call "micro" anything that can be seen by the naked eye in the context of impurities in a bottle of water. 5 mm? Come on, they are nearly the size of marbles we played with as kids ...
- djsumdog 8y agoBottled water is a scam. It's less regulated than municipal tap water in most developed nations, companies suck up water from small towns and use tons of fuel to ship it out of those watersheds and then charge people 1000% markup. For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. Don't buy plastic disposable water bottles if you live in a developed nation. They prop up a terrible industry, generate tons of waste, use tons of oil and it's less clean than just drinking from a water fountain. Edit: the documentary Tapped is a great film about the bottled water industry, and Blue Gold is a good one about the water industry in general.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- lcfcjs 8y agoGo live in Flint, Michigan and report back. Thanks.
- manmal 8y ago> For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. And until the problem has been fixed, what exactly are they supposed to drink?
- ceejayoz 8y agoI suspect most developing areas without clean water supplies are simultaneously unable to afford buying bottled water. They're often drinking dirty water, which they may or may not treat.
- sorenn111 8y agoWhile there may be some questions regarding the exact methodologies used in this study and its accuracy, it is still pretty fucking scary to hear that microplastics are in so much of the water we drink and bottled companies are not filtering it out sufficiently.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoEspecially considering that the oil filter in your car is good to tens of microns for tens of thousands of gallons and costs ~$5. You'd think that if you're running an industrial plant (at a scale where multi-stage filters, centrifugal separation, etc, etc are economically viable) you'd be able to do a heck of a lot better than 10 100 micron particles per liter.
- therein 8y agoTo be fair, I think these microplastics accumulate in the water after they have been bottled.
- Falling3 8y agoI didn't think it had anything to do with plastic from the bottles the water is sold in. Where is that assumption coming from?
- culot 8y agoI assumed the reason bottled water tastes strongly of plastic was because the plastic of the bottle was leeching into the water.
- lostconfused 8y ago"It's not clear how the plastic is getting into the bottled water — whether it's the water source itself or the air or the manufacturing and bottling process. "Even the simple act of opening the cap could cause plastic to be chipping off the cap," Mason said."
- ben509 8y agoI was wondering if there was anything that established what microplastics actually do. Found an interesting paper here: http://resodema.org/publications/publication9.pdf http://resodema.org/publications/publication9.pdf
- jtbayly 8y agoFor the curious, the paper only addresses marine biology, according to the abstract.
- pfarnsworth 8y agoNow that we know that microplastics are in our water supply, what do we do to protect ourselves? Do reverse osmosis filters, etc, at home get rid of these plastics? It certainly sounds dangerous and scary but I don't know what I need to do or should do, which is frustrating.
- gascan 8y agoPetition your local government to treat municipal water for microplastics. Petition your federal government to tackle the root problem of why microplastics end up in the water in the first place.
- lopmotr 8y agoYou've skipped a step. Before protecting yourself, what not find out what harm it causes? Sounding scary is not the same as being scary. Everything in the news sounds scary, that's why it's in the news, not because it's a real problem that needs to be solved.
- quantumwoke 8y agoFor anyone else wondering what effect microplastics actually have on the human body, it looks like the effects are still up in the air. Animal studies [0] show that microplastics can be taken up by tissue and circulation, and they are also present in the air [1]. Not sure what impact drinking bottled water would have on concentration inside the body. I couldn't find any long term studies on their effect on cancer, which is my main concern for any foreign contaminant entering the body. Food (or drink :) for thought! [0] https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ieam.5630030412 https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ieam.5... [1] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71279-6_13 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71279-6_...
- bdamm 8y agoCancer is obviously no good, but other terrible life damaging consequences can also happen. Witness lead poisoning, with its reduced IQ and tendency towards violence for people who've ingested or breathed in lead. Also bad would be clogging of capillaries and causing some strange diabetes, with subsequent organ damage. Reduced fertility is another concerning type of biological damage. All of these are life-changing and won't kill you on short order. I think these kinds of damages are more pernicious as they're less obvious but still impact your quality of life, and maybe more so than living in a developing country.
- hinkley 8y agoWe know that a lot of nasty (carcinogenic) chemicals will bond to plastics, poisoning any animal that ingests it. If you can't get the plastics out of the water you can't get the other chemicals out, because the plastic has already grabbed it.
- hinkley 8y agoCitation for downvoters: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23270427 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23270427
- ttsda 8y agoKeep in mind they only tested 11 brands from 9 countries.
- ricardobeat 8y ago“Only” 250 bottles from 11 brands and 9 countries from different continents. I think this is more than anyone could ask for for an initial study, usually it would be done for a single region.
- seszett 8y agoHere are the actual results: https://orbmedia.org/stories/plus-plastic https://orbmedia.org/stories/plus-plastic I wish there had been more European water brands tested, as out of this list I only know Evian and San Pellegrino, and they are the two least contaminated brands, but they are also a bit more upscale than what most people drink.
- nugi 8y agoThey also tend to come in glass or cans.
- artursapek 8y agoWhen we moved to Boulder from New York recently we got some really weird looks for buying a plastic bottle of water at the store. I actually felt some joy from receiving that tacit disapproval. Soon after we joined the herd in using stainless steel bottles in our car, backpacks, etc - something we aspired to in New York but was hard to commit to when there's a deli on every corner.
- always_good 8y ago>we got some really weird looks I have a hard time believing a movie scene played out in the 7-11 with everyone staring at you for buying a bottle of water. Or, if you looked around and people were crinkling their eyebrows at you, I wouldn't assume it was because of the bottled water.
- danbruc 8y ago0.1 millimeter or larger is not really that small, it's the size of fine sand. I admittedly never look for sand in bottled water but just assumed that such large particles would never make it through the filters.
- Dirlewanger 8y agoScary shit. An aside: what are people using for tap filters? Is Brita still the go-to company, or are there other better solutions?
- ericd 8y agoPur supposedly filters out a greater percentage of many different solutes than the standard Brita, but it looks like Brita came out with a new filter that does better than their old one. A longer discussion: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-water-filter-pitcher/ https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-water-filter-pitcher/
- fh973 8y agoTap filters like Brita decrease quality of tap water, at least here in Germany. They are quickly contaminated with bacteria and microbes.
- culot 8y agoPur filters produce water that tastes better than Brita. From hard country well-water to harsh chlorine city water, Pur tastes markedly better for me.
- TheGrassyKnoll 8y ago"It's so difficult to get people to care about things they can't see."
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoHmm. That's concerning. I had more or less switched entirely off bottled water and now only use a combination of filtered tap water + reusable insulated bottles ala Kleen Kanteen at home and work, but I have recently started buying more sparkling water / club soda in an attempt to ween myself off Coke. Perhaps it's time I take the plunge and buy a SodaStream or comparable water carbonator.
- illegalsmile 8y agoI have a kegerator and always have 5 gallons of soda water on tap, I highly recommend making your own water. I would buy a 5 pound tank of CO2 and a few 2L bottles instead of a soda stream.
- spodek 8y agoLet's remember the macroplastic of the bottle holding the water that outside Flint, MI is unnecessary pollution in nearly every country of people reading these words. We can all stop buying bottled water. It won't solve every problem, but it will solve a lot of this one, while saving you money and focusing people on cleaning your current sources.
- hello_person 8y agoWe should move to plant based plastics.
- culot 8y agoHow would that be better?
- acct1771 8y agoIf you use the right plants, it probably won't be carcinogenic/non-biodegradable. ("Bio" being your insides)
- c22 8y agoFrom what I understand "bioplastic" is just "plastic" made from non-petroleum sources. "Biodegradable" or "compostable" plastic is just microplastic particles held together with cellulose. Neither of these necessarily sound better for putting in my body.
- hello_person 8y agoI'm surprised we are not using plant based plastics.
- hateful 8y agoI drink a specific brand of bottled water because I don't like the taste of tap water. Filtering it takes some of the bad taste away, but adds none of the good. I'll have to add "microplastic" as another one of my favorite spices.
- Raphmedia 8y agoYou could probably learn what minerals is in it, buy a boatload of it in bulk for $5 and live healthy and happy for the rest of your life.
- freebear 8y agoTap water is about the same, old one: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-... This is just our devouring of the planet, nothing to see here. Now reinsert head in ass and press play.
- Panoramix 8y agoAt least tap water doesn't come in disposable plastic bottles that end up as microplastics in our water supply
- Finster 8y agoCouldn't the microplastics just come from the plastic bottles the water is bottled in?
- makecheck 8y agoMore than once I felt mild nausea after drinking directly from a bottle, whereas pouring the water out of the bottle into a glass was fine. I suspect it’s not just what’s in the water but the bottle itself that’s not good.
- always_good 8y agoYou're saying the mere action of touching your lips to the bottle is what induced nausea?
- MaggieL 8y agoSomebody got paid to find out if water in plastic bottles has plastic in it.
- fsck_muzzies 8y agoBottled water from the store has about 435x less dissolved solids in it compared to our tap water. I’ll take the unsafe bottled water thanks.
- antibland 8y agoI use a Berkey filtration system and feel mildly optimistic about not drinking plastic every time I fill my glass. From late September, 2017 [0]. > "There is nowhere really where you can say these are being trapped 100%. In terms of fibres, the diameter is 10 microns across and it would be very unusual to find that level of filtration in our drinking water systems.” With that being said, we know that the berkey can filter down to 2 microns and less, so until testing is done, we can only state that the berkey would be filtering out more of these microplastics than your town's municipal water filtering system [0](https://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/blog/category/microplastics/ https://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/blog/category/micropla...)
- drharby 8y agoHmmm...the site cites this exact study in its marketing material. Hmmmmm
- LinuxBender 8y agoI live in the U.S. The tap water in my neck of the woods is disgusting. It is a water tank on top of a hill that has open vents and is surrounded by trees, moss and much worse. There is nothing stopping anyone from throwing a water balloon filled with (insert whatever) at the vent. Hikers pass it every day at vent level. The pipes leading up to it leak about 20k gallons of water into the mountainside every day. There are testing taps every few miles on my road and I see them sometimes taking samples. I do not feel comfortable even showering in this water. I certainly would not drink it intentionally. For bottled water, I get the bottles made of rigid plastic that may have less chance of leaching chemicals over a short period of time. Only time will tell if I chose correctly.
- woolvalley 8y agoI wonder what the contamination stats are for canned water, carton water and glass bottle water. I do drink a lot of carbonated lacroix.
- pombrand 8y agoI worked in a lab and where we used an atomic force microscope to scan single DNA strands on flat surfaces. At first we couldn't "read" anything as the surface was covered in gunk from the water we used, switching to water in glass bottles fixed this.