Key TakeawaysA recent study found there are roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water.While the side effects of using plastic are still being researched, some evidence suggests it can have impacts on the endocrine system and reproductive systems.Experts recommend minimizing exposure to plastic whenever possible. If you can, switch to single-use aluminum water bottles or reusable water bottles made of metal or glass.

Key Takeaways

A recent study found there are roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water.While the side effects of using plastic are still being researched, some evidence suggests it can have impacts on the endocrine system and reproductive systems.Experts recommend minimizing exposure to plastic whenever possible. If you can, switch to single-use aluminum water bottles or reusable water bottles made of metal or glass.

Americans now purchase upwards of 15 billion gallons of bottled water each year.Little do they know each bottled liter is teeming with a quarter million tiny plastic particles, according to research published earlier this month.

The study, published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,showed roughly 240,000 detectable plastic particles in a typical liter of bottled water—10 to 100 times more than previously estimated.

“Previously, this was just a dark, uncharted area. Toxicity studies were just guessing what’s in there,” said study coauthor Beizhan Yan, PhD, an environmental chemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in anews release. “This opens a window where we can look into a world that was not exposed to us before.”

Here’s how these plastics can impact your health and what you can do to minimize potential effects, according to experts.

What Types of Plastics Are in Bottled Water?

Yan and his colleagues used a technique involving two lasers called stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy to detect the plastic particles and used machine learning to identify them.

The researchers tested three popular bottled water brands sold in the U.S. but declined to name which ones. In each liter, which is equivalent to about 4 cups, they found 110,000 to 370,000 particles.

About 90% of the particles identified in the water were nanoplastics and 10% of them were microplastics, the authors wrote.

Microplastics are small plastic pieces that range in size from 1 micron to 5 millimeters in diameter. At the larger end of the spectrum, they can be about the size of a pencil eraser, according to the National Ocean Service.

Nanoplastics are even smaller, ranging in size from 1 nanometer to 1 micron,Anna Marie LaChance, PhD, lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told Verywell in an email.

“For perspective, human hair ranges from 50 to 120 microns wide,” LaChance said.

The researchers also found other common plastics in bottled water, including:

“There is a huge world of nanoplastics to be studied,” Wei Min, PhD, study coauthor and Columbia biophysicist, said in anews release. “It’s not size that matters. It’s the numbers, because the smaller things are, the more easily they can get inside us.”

Are These Plastics Harmful to Your Health?

At this time, researchers do not have enough evidence yet to determine how these plastic particles impact our health,Arie Francis, MD, an emergency medicine physician who specializes in medical toxicology and emergency medicine at Stony Brook Medicine, told Verywell.

“There isn’t conclusive evidence that plastics, in and of themselves, can cause toxicity, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t,” Francis said. “The absence of that evidence doesn’t mean that it’s a risk-free endeavor.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, two types of chemicals commonly found in water, called PFOA and PFOS,are hazardous to human health in doses as small as 0.004 and 0.02 parts per trillion.These “forever chemicals” are found in many commercially manufactured products because of their durability and nonstick properties. Similarly, Bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical used to make many plastic water bottles, can causeadverse reproductive effectsat doses as low as 2 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day, LaChance said.

The EPA Finally Plans to Regulate Toxic, Widespread ‘Forever Chemicals’

“These chemicals are so harmful because they areendocrine-disrupting chemicals. Because of the way our endocrine system works, even one molecule of these chemicals can enter our bloodstream, mimic a hormone, adhere to a hormone receptor, and wreak havoc on our bodies,” said LaChance. “Many suspect that regular consumption of beverages fromPET[polyethylene terephthalate—clear, strong, plastic] bottles may be contributing to wide-scale reproductive toxicity.”

Other evidence adds to the list of potential health effects of microplastics and nanoplastics, such as reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, oxidative stress, carcinogenicity, altered metabolism, reproductive abnormalities, gastrointestinal dysfunction, increased mortality, and more, said LaChance.

Can You Filter Plastic Particles Out of Water?

By the time bottled water has been packaged, shipped to a store, and purchased, the microplastics and nanoplastics are already present in the product, LaChance said. There isn’t much you can do to get rid of them at that point.

“Pouring it into a glass or another bottle will not help,” said LaChance. “Boiling the water does not help in this case; that is done to kill bacteria, which doesn’t apply here.”

Filtration can help, but not all filters remove microplastics, and only a few remove nanoplastics.

Tools like adsorbents, which bind to nanoplastics, can help, but most consumer water filters don’t use these methods, said LaChance.

“Our water needs to have its nanoplastics removed at the source and dealt with at the public scale: in ourwastewater treatment plants),” she said.

Older Water Bottles May Be Worse

The longer a product sits in plastic, the more microplastics and nonplastics it can contain.

“The longer a bottle sits around, the more time plastics have to diffuse into a bottle,” LaChance said.

External factors, such as temperature, can also influence the quantity of plastic particles present in bottled water.

“Bulk plastic breaks down into micro- and nanoplastics via heat, photochemical reactions, oxidation, and other processes,” said LaChance. “Water from a water bottle that’s been sitting in your car on a hot day probably has much more plastic in it than water from a bottle that’s been sitting on a store shelf at a controlled temperature, unexposed to light.”

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How to Minimize Your Exposure to Plastic Particles

While you may not be able to avoid plastics entirely, there are some steps you can take to minimize your exposure, LaChance and Francis said. This includes:

“There are so many ways to avoid plastics!” LaChance said. “But truly, the best thing to do would be to take part incollective actionto get governments and businesses to care about this issue.”

What This Means For YouNew research shows that bottled water contains tens of thousands of tiny plastic particles. To minimize exposure, experts recommend avoiding plastic altogether—as much as possible.

What This Means For You

New research shows that bottled water contains tens of thousands of tiny plastic particles. To minimize exposure, experts recommend avoiding plastic altogether—as much as possible.

9 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Beverage Marketing Corporation.Bottled water volume growth slows in 2022, data from Beverage Marketing Corporation show.

National Ocean Service.What are microplastics?

Environmental Protection Agency.Questions and answers: drinking water health advisories for PFOA, PFOS, GenX chemicals and PFBS.

Geng Y, Liu Z, Hu R, et al.Toxicity of microplastics and nanoplastics: invisible killers of female fertility and offspring health.Front Physiol. 2023;14:1254886. doi:10.3389/fphys.2023.1254886

Lai H, Liu X, Qu M.Nanoplastics and human health: hazard identification and biointerface.Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022;12(8):1298. doi:10.3390/nano12081298

Lee Y, Cho J, Sohn J, Kim C.Health effects of microplastic exposures: current issues and perspectives in South Korea.Yonsei Med J. 2023;64(5):301-308. doi:10.3349/ymj.2023.0048

Campanale C, Massarelli C, Savino I, Locaputo V, Uricchio VF.A detailed review study on potential effects of microplastics and additives of concern on human health.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(4):1212. doi:10.3390/ijerph17041212

Alqahtani S, Alqahtani S, Saquib Q, Mohiddin F.Toxicological impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on humans: understanding the mechanistic aspect of the interaction.Front Toxicol. 2023;5:1193386. doi:10.3389/ftox.2023.1193386

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