Plastic particles found in almost all bottled water (uk)

[Bok]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/healt ... 56741.html

This study has been done in the UK but with bottled water from all over the world, so we can be pretty sure it concerns all bottled water...

I’ve always found it crazy that people are importing water from half a world away. I understand the importance of water for making tea but that is not a good enough excuse to use resources and add almost imperishable material to the planet.

I say, use local water and deal with it. Filters and other devices will be able to turn most tap into drinkable water. Personally I have a Britta filter for our tap and it makes my Taipei water good for tea without any detrimental effect that I can notice.

Still sad, the article mentions that those particles are found in most water sources nowadays, bottled or not.

[chofmann]

Or buy water in glass bottles. It tastes better that way anyway.

I'd never use it for tea since it is carbonated, but if you come between me and my San Pellegrino....

[pedant]

correction: Plastic particles found in almost all bottled drinking water

major sources include microfibers from laundered clothing and microbeads from cosmetics and some detergents

https://www.google.com/search?q=water+p ... tic+fibers

https://orbmedia.org/stories/Invisibles ... multimedia

Some 83% of tap water samples collected from over a dozen countries on five continents tested positive for microplastic, according to a study commissioned by data journalism outlet Orb. The specific rate of prevalence in different locales varied, but all tested locations — from Europe to Jakarta and Beirut — saw plastic found in over 70% of tap water samples.

In the U.S., researchers found that 94% of all water samples — including tap water from places like Trump Tower and the Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters — were contaminated by plastic.

particularly disturbing because these particles can be taken up into cells and tissues:

In this study, we investigated if industrial high-density polyethylene (HDPE) particles, a model microplastic free of additives, ranging > 0–80 μm are ingested and taken up into the cells and tissue of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis L.
...
In addition to being drawn into the gills, HDPE particles were taken up into the stomach and transported into the digestive gland where they accumulated in the lysosomal system after 3 h of exposure. Our results show notable histological changes upon uptake and a strong inflammatory response demonstrated by the formation of granulocytomas after 6 h and lysosomal membrane destabilization, which significantly increased with longer exposure times. We provide proof of principle that microplastics are taken up into cells and cause significant effects on the tissue and cellular level

[chofmann]

correction: Plastic particles found in almost all bottled drinking water

major sources include microfibers from laundered clothing and microbeads from cosmetics and some detergents

https://www.google.com/search?q=water+p ... tic+fibers

Well... I'm never drinking unfiltered water again. Thanks for the nightmares and probably adding 5-10 years to my life

[Bok]

correction: Plastic particles found in almost all bottled drinking water

major sources include microfibers from laundered clothing and microbeads from cosmetics and some detergents

https://www.google.com/search?q=water+p ... tic+fibers

Well... I'm never drinking unfiltered water again. Thanks for the nightmares and probably adding 5-10 years to my life

Well we would all probably be better off to skip the shampoo-conditioner-after-pre-and-paleo-wash madness… do not recall we were that much dirtier or unhealthy as kids when a household just had a bar of soap for all the washing and washed the hair once a week! Advertising and clever marketing has us all made less clever

[tealifehk]

I actually only bathe with bar soap With my hair as short as it is I don't really need shampoo.

As for plastics...I think the Brita will also contribute plastic microfibers. Not much we can do it seems! My brother has an in-line ceramic filter. As long as he only uses water from the tap ---> glass he should be fine. Although there are estrogenic compounds on glass too, apparently...

[Bok]

No matter what we do - life is still deadly

[tealifehk]

Yep, and there's no real solution to this water issue right now, although Brita --> glass is not a bad start. Or maybe it is...who knows. Yeah, we're all gonna end up dead, but we can try to minimize the risk and teach other people to as well. Maybe we can move forward without poisoning ourselves every day, oh, say in a few generations!

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 6010003572

Buying water bottled in glass helps some!

[debunix]

Buying water bottled in glass helps some!

You don't know how well filtered the water is in glass, and I read about a lot of recalls of medicines in glass vials ending up with tiny particles of glass in them. Plus: much higher energy costs to transport the heavier glass.

No perfect answer.....even my Brita filter is plastic around the active charcoal, and the pitcher is plastic.....

[tealifehk]

Buying water bottled in glass helps some!

You don't know how well filtered the water is in glass, and I read about a lot of recalls of medicines in glass vials ending up with tiny particles of glass in them. Plus: much higher energy costs to transport the heavier glass.

No perfect answer.....even my Brita filter is plastic around the active charcoal, and the pitcher is plastic.....

Study above just says less plastic particles found in bottled water sold in glass, but yes, I was thinking about the glass shard issue earlier too. There really isn't much we can do about this issue, short of installing in-line filters that don't contain any plastic after the filtration section and then pouring straight into stainless steel vessels or clay vessels maybe. lol

[John_B]

I recently attended a seminar on some "detox" related subjects in which this issue came up. Oddly a lot of what they presented was reasonable, nothing at all about slimming teas, laxatives, or diuretics, and they didn't cover that much related to fasting or colonics (enemas).

It makes one wonder, how much of that passed-on common wisdom content has value? Did we really need this research into plastic bottles containing plastic in the water as a warning, when if you leave one of those bottles around for a year or two you can taste it?

Of course some of what they covered didn't seem to work. That one presenter went straight onto the subject of structured water, related to water remembering it's past shape, which is surely nonsense. It is possible she was reaching some valid conclusions based on framing that didn't work, because she was talking more about mineral content in water being important than about devices that help water remember a certain molecular placement pattern (which are out there).

Digital detox was a related theme, in terms of common sense overlapping with somewhat New Age wisdom. Of course staring at screens half your waking hours is negative. Moving on to saying the EMF exposure is dangerous is more controversial, but who knows, maybe it is.

I was disappointed they didn't get around to mentioning anything about tea. Lots of focus went towards avoiding processed foods, and sugar, and doing temporary raw food diets, but it wasn't clear if any of the people presenting drank tea. It wouldn't "detox" them even if they did, but not drinking powdered, artificially flavored tea products that are very common here works towards not taking in "toxins" in the first place.