An interesting study about micro- and nanoplastics in bottled water released this week. The small size of nanoplastics ( < 1 um ) make them hard...

Published on by

An interesting study about micro- and nanoplastics in bottled water released this week. The small size of nanoplastics ( < 1 um ) make them hard to detect, so the researchers figured out a more accurate method of detection. With their improved method, it turns out there are more nanoplastics in bottled water than we thought.

Before freaking out and throwing out unused bottles of water, there is little research surrounding the human health implications of ingesting nanoplastics. So far, we know nanoplastics are not great for pregnant rats or mammalian cells. But these studies used concentrated doses of nanoplastics - higher than what researchers found in bottled water.

Conclusions? We need more research about this. Many communities rely on bottled water for drinking. Even as someone who studies water treatment, I drink bottled water when it is the most accessible option. I would love to see studies about the impacts of realistic plastic ingestion on human health.

New nanoplastic study: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2300582121

Pregnant rat study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12989-020-00385-9

Mammalian cell study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969720360472?via%3Dihub

Taxonomy