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Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

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Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#71
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In at least a couple of European countries it is well known that unless your city has specific problems tap water is better than bottled water. The reason being that (except some cases of corruption...) legal limit are much stricter for tap water. Better in impurities at the very least, the taste is usually quite worse.

Living in Germany/Berlin and can confirm. Our tap water is excellent and is way cleaner than all bottled water you can buy. Keep in mind, bottled water is also kept around way longer and has the time to „breed“. In tests, the tap water is consistently less contaminated. I recommend everyone to just stick to it. As an anecdote: you can let your tap water be tested for free if you have a newborn to ensure and confirm t…

Is Berlin (as opposed to other areas of Germany) culturally ok with drinking tap water?

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the tea bags are a new plastic mesh kind, currently from a small handful of manufacturers.

Wasn't it pretty much every large tea manufacturer in the UK though? I definitely got the impression that it's very widespread.

I got the sense it was the nylon bagged tea that had the issue, and they are comparatively rare in the UK. Yet many paper tea bags have tiny amounts of plastic based glue. No idea if that's enough to be feeding us microplastics, or relative quantity to plastic ones.

It's one of those things that having found surprising amounts somewhere, we're going to spend the coming years finding surprising amounts everywhere.

Bit like the chap who ended up finding lead from petrol everywhere on every researcher and clean surface in his lab, invented the clean room, and started finding it up mountains etc.

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>long term subtle effects The longer term, and subtler the effect is, the safer a substance is. My educated guess is that microplastics are going to cause a lot fewer human deaths and ingury than any of the following natural stuff: Bees, coffee (see acrylamide), peanuts, mosquitoes, arsenic, mushrooms, and bodies of water.

That is a good point, and I agree and would add cars, hammers, sodas, and bread mold. But acrylamide studies are all based on rat models to date. Human studies have not shown the same impact. We have been cooking food a long time and it would not surprise me if we have stumbled on and kept a mutation that makes it safe.

What's wrong with hammers?

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#78
I was under the impression Gerolsteiner and San Pellegrino were from deep under ground springs where it took the water decades or more to filter down into the source where the bottler draws it from. Are the plastics somehow in the source or are they being introduced in another way, perhaps when the bottles are washed, handled, etc before filling?

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in Germany/Berlin and can confirm. Our tap water is excellent and is way cleaner than all bottled water you can buy. Keep in mind, bottled water is also kept around way longer and has the time to „breed“. In tests, the tap water is consistently less contaminated. I recommend everyone to just stick to it. As an anecdote: you can let your tap water be tested for free if you have a newborn to ensure and confirm t…

Is Berlin (as opposed to other areas of Germany) culturally ok with drinking tap water?

I'd say all of Germany is culturally very much ok with drinking tap water, Berlin not much more or less than other regions. People who drink bottled water here don't usually do it because they think it's "better" than tap water, it's either because of convenience when you're not home or because they like carbonated water (which is very popular in Germany).

Re: Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study

#80

I was under the impression Gerolsteiner and San Pellegrino were from deep under ground springs where it took the water decades or more to filter down into the source where the bottler draws it from. Are the plastics somehow in the source or are they being introduced in another way, perhaps when the bottles are washed, handled, etc before filling?

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