Let’s start with this – I abhor the concept of selling bottled water. I understand the business rationale – as people understand the negative effects of sweetened sodas, beverage companies need revenue streams that help them recapture spend. Ergo bottled water.
The sad truth is that the countries that are the biggest buyers of bottled water are the countries that need them the least because of the quality of their tap water. Bottled water makes for a good story – but it is a head fake. If you really are worried about water quality, just buy a filter and you’re still likely going to get better quality water anyway.
All this said, this was an argument that a good story – and the picture of a nice sounding “spring” somewhere – was winning.
Until now.
A new study found that a one-liter bottle of water has over 240,000 fragments of plastic – 90% of which are previously undetected “nanoplastics.” This builds on previous studies that showed more microplastics existed in bottled water than otherwise. The scale of these nanoplastics, however, is an order of magnitude higher than we’d have thought.
I thought the response from the International Bottled Water Association was particularly good – “There is no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of nano- and microplastic particles.”
Amazing.
I’m looking forward to more studies that build momentum around these findings and, of course, I’m eagerly looking forward to the IBWA’s responses to them.
