Microplastics in bottled water

[NHE]

Researchers find a massive number of plastic particles in bottled water

Updated January 10, 2024 11:59 AM

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/10/12237303 ... stic-study

Microscopic pieces of plastic are everywhere. Now, they've been found in bottled water in concentrations 10 to 100 times more than previously estimated.

Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University found roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water. The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

About 10% of the detected plastic particles were microplastics, and the other 90% were nanoplastics. Microplastics are between 5 millimeters to 1 micrometer; nanoplastics are particles less than 1 micrometer in size. For context, a human hair is about 70 micrometers thick.

Microplastics have already been found in people's lungs, their excrement, their blood and in placentas, among other places. A 2018 study found an average of 325 pieces of microplastics in a liter of bottled water.

Nanoplastics could be even more dangerous than microplastics because when inside the human body, "the smaller it goes, the easier for it to be misidentified as the natural component of the cell," says Wei Min, a professor of chemistry at Columbia University and one of the study's co-authors.

The researchers used a technology involving two lasers called stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy to detect the particles and used machine learning to identify them. They searched for seven common types of plastic using this system: polyamide 66, polypropylene, polyethylene, polymethyl methacrylate, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate.

They tested three brands of bottled water; they did not identify the brands.

The particles they could identify accounted for only 10% of total particles they found — the rest could be minerals, or other types of plastics, or something else, says Beizhan Yan, a research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and a co-author on the study.

The International Bottled Water Association, an industry group that represents U.S. and international water bottlers and distributors, said in a statement that it has had "very limited notice and time" to review the study.

But the group said the new detection method "needs to be fully reviewed by the scientific community and more research needs to be done to develop standardized methods for measuring and quantifying nanoplastics in our environment."

The association said there is "no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of nano- and microplastic particles." It added: "media reports about these particles in drinking water do nothing more than unnecessarily scare consumers."

The researchers hypothesize that some of the plastics in the bottled water could be shedding from, ironically enough, the plastic used in types of water filters.

Phoebe Stapleton, another study co-author who is a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Rutgers University, says researchers have known that nanoplastics were in water. "But if you can't quantify them or can't make a visual of them, it's hard to believe that they're actually there," she says.

The significance of their group's research is that it now "brings that to light, and not only provides what is a computer generated image, but it also allows for the quantification and even more importantly, the chemistry of that quantification," Stapleton says.

They hope the research will lead to having a better understanding of how much plastic humans are regularly putting into their bodies and its effects.

Yan says they plan future research employing the same technology to look at plastic particles in tap water, in the air, in food and in human tissues. "This is basically just to open a new window for us to see [what was] this invisible world before."

Humans produce more than 440 million tons of plastic each year, according to the United Nations. About 80% of plastic ends up in landfills or the environment, researchers say.

[ElliotB]

Microplastics are a big problem. The ocean is full of plastic too so while 'sea salt' sounds like a good choice for salt, any product that has sea salt has microplastics in it.

Fortunately, there are good options to avoid the microplastics. With regard to water, distilled water is the best choice. Home distillers are inexpensive and give you pure water without the microplastics. Distilled water is thought to have many health benefits.

The two lowest microplastic salts available are Himalayan pink salt and Redmonds. Both are very, very low in microplastics. Redmonds is the lower of the two but is a lot more expensive. Although when mined there is zero plastic in either of them, through processing, an extremely small amount of plastic is added (resulting from friction with the plastic containers the salt is transported in) But compared to sea salt, either is a much better choice. Both also contain many important trace minerals which are essential for good health. And while sea salt does have some trace minerals, it is not the best choice.

[NHE]

With regard to water, distilled water is the best choice. Home distillers are inexpensive and give you pure water without the microplastics. Distilled water is thought to have many health benefits.

Distilled water is so low in dissolved minerals it can deplete your body of needed salts.

[ElliotB]

Distilled water is so low in dissolved minerals it can deplete your body of needed salts.

Good point!

Actually, it has zero dissolved minerals. AND most importantly ZERO microplastics. Which is why it is essential to balance your diet and include/consume trace minerals. And it is quite easy to do. You can salt your food with a quality salt (which is what I do - I lightly salt virtually all of my foods (my foods never taste salty)) or you can simply add trace minerals to your distilled water AND/OR take supplements.

It is critical to eliminate microplastics from your diet.

An easy and economical way to add trace minerals back into distilled water is to add 1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan or Redmond salt to a gallon of distilled water (some recommend a teaspoon (level teaspoon). I believe both of those brands of salt have over 80 trace minerals in them. The water will not have any taste at all added to it. Nor will it taste salty. Many commercial trace mineral supplements are available. But they tend to be expensive. And are no better than adding a bit of quality salt to your water and foods.

Here is a link to an article that describes what to do:

https://himalayansalthub.com/how-much-p ... -to-water/

A good 2nd choice is to use a RO (Reverse Osmosis) water filter system (distilled water is better in my opinion, RO water removes most of the impurities, close to 100% but not 100% like distilling does) that includes a remineralizer cartridge that automatically adds minerals to the water because like a distiller, RO filtering systems remove minerals as well. Be aware that most RO filters sold DO NOT have a remineralizer cartridge. Another consideration with a remineralizer system is that there is no indication as to what minerals are included. My thought is that it is probably better to use natural salts high in trace minerals, around 80 in total. I purchased my RO filter system from a company called Aquasana and have been using it for about 10 years. I change the filters every six months as recommended by Aquasana which I think is a good idea (most systems only recommend once a year). I also drink distilled water. I probably consume about a 50/50 mix between the two filtration systems. And I do lightly salt ALL my food - salt is an essential nutrient and good for you, plus I want to be sure I am adding those very important trace minerals to my diet. And food tastes better when properly, lightly salted.

Distilled water has numerous health benefits, lots of info on the web.

By the way, I do not recommend purchasing distilled water, or any water for that matter, in plastic bottles. Here is an interesting article on the subject:

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/health ... r-AA1mNbYb

Are there minerals in tap water? Possibly. Unfortunately, there is likely a whole lot more in tap water that you don't want to be drinking or cooking with. And there is no way of knowing what minerals are actually there. Himalayan salt and Redmonds salt have about 80 trace minerals, naturally. The best way to add minerals to your drinking water is as described in the article I linked to above using pure, clean distilled or high qaulity filtered water (filtered by RO) only.