Bottled Water May Contain Hundreds of Thousands of Tiny Plastic Particles, New Study Finds

Bottled water may contain hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles, according to a new study.

Researchers tested bottled water from three popular brands using new technology that allowed them to accurately count nanoplastics for the first time.

Nanoplastics are so small they can pass through the intestines and lungs directly into the blood stream and travel to your organs.

The researchers used a special laser technique to search for 7 common plastics and spotted between 110,000 and 370,000 particles in each liter.

90% of them were nanoplastics and the rest were larger microplastics.

One common nanoplastic they identified, called PET, is what many water bottles are made of.

The researchers say this discovery was not surprising, since PET probably sloughs off when a bottle is squeezed or gets exposed to heat.

They also identified a type of nylon found in “purifying” filters and several plastics used in industrial processes.

The researchers say the 7 types they searched for accounted for only 10% of the nanoparticles they found, and they have no idea what the rest are.

One study author says when it comes to nanoplastics versus microplastics, “It’s not size that matters. It’s the numbers, because the smaller things are, the more easily they can get inside us.”

In the future, the team plans on testing tap water, which has also been shown to contain microplastics.