Microplastic particles: Is
bottled water still safe to drink after researchers find 'almost all' brands
contaminated?
The study's findings have sparked concerns among
members of the public over whether bottled water is still safe to drink Rex.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)
has announced it will conduct an investigation into bottled mineral water after a study found traces of
microplastic flakes in "almost all" brands currently
on sale in the UK.
The WHO
expressed concern about the potentially harmful effects the particles could have on public health - but did
move to reassure those concerned over the safety of shop-bought water.
Tests carried out at the State
University of New York in Fredonia found that most of the 259 bottles of
water assessed by researchers from 11 different brands were contaminated.
Scientists found an average of 10 plastic
particles per litre of water, each one larger than a human hair.
Microplastics are small plastic particles
derived from a variety of sources such as cosmetics, clothing, industrial
processes, packaging materials and the degradation of larger plastic
items.
The WHO stressed that, at present, there is
no evidence that microplastics pose a risk to human health but said that
it wanted to assess the situation over long periods.
Bruce Gordon, co-ordinator for the WHO's
global work on water and sanitation, told BBC News that the key question was
whether a lifetime of consuming small particles of plastic could have a
detrimental effect.
"When we think about the composition
of the plastic, whether there might be toxins in it, to what extent they might
carry harmful constituents, what actually the particles might do in the body -
there's just not the research there to tell us," he said.
"We normally have a 'safe' limit but
to have a safe limit, to define that, we need to understand if these things are
dangerous, and if they occur in water at concentrations that are
dangerous."
The UK Food Standards Agency also
moved to reassure consumers.
"Based on current information,
including the evaluation on the safety of microplastics exposure from food
undertaken by the European Food Safety Authority, it is unlikely that the
levels of microplastic particles reported in this study to be present in
bottled water would cause harm to consumers," a spokeswoman said.
"Microplastics are present in the
environment, both on land and in water, therefore some presence in food is
likely, but that doesn't necessarily mean that this presence is harmful. We
will assess any emerging information concerning microplastics in food and drink."
The rapid screening method used
in the test was developed at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and
worked by identifying microscopic plastic particles - as small as a few
micrometres - in water by staining them using fluorescent Nile Red dye.
"We are becoming increasingly aware
of microplastics in the environment and their potentially harmful
effects, but their prevalence in other areas has been much less studied,"
Dr Andrew Mays of the UEA said.
"They have been reported in tap water,
beer and many other foods, but I think that people will be surprised that
almost all bottled water appears to be contaminated too.
"This study analysed more than 250
bottles from 27 lots and 11 different brands from around the world, so it is
the largest and most comprehensive study of water I know of to date and
almost all were contaminated to some degree.
"The method we pioneered here
at UEA was used, and it is very pleasing to see it used to facilitate
this type of large-scale study, which would have been hugely time-consuming and
prohibitively expensive using conventional approaches.
"What the results don't show is where
these plastic particles are coming from - but I would expect that most is
coming from the processing and packing process, though some may be coming from
the original water source in some cases.
"What we do know is
that microplastics are in the environment all around us - and they're
accumulating. They're in the food web in our oceans and now we know
they're in most of our bottled water too."
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