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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

#151

Post by petre »

chimeracoder wrote: post #113
petre wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morocco as well. Be sure to check the seal because they refill them with tap water and sell it on the street. You can get sick even from washing your teeth with tap water. Sick as in ruin your vacation, not sick as in really sick.

> You can get sick even from washing your teeth with tap water. Sick as in ruin your vacation, not sick as in really sick. I mean, I'd call HAV "really sick". Even for people who clear the infection without assistance and no long-term complications, it's rather involved and goes far beyond simply "ruin your vacation".

Not HAV but other stuff that's prevalent and they're quite immune to it while westeners are not. Of course you can also get HAV as well if you aren't careful.

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

#152

Post by always_good »

artursapek wrote: post #29

When we moved to Boulder from New York recently we got some really weird looks for buying a plastic bottle of water at the store. I actually felt some joy from receiving that tacit disapproval. Soon after we joined the herd in using stainless steel bottles in our car, backpacks, etc - something we aspired to in New York but was hard to commit to when there's a deli on every corner.

>we got some really weird looks

I have a hard time believing a movie scene played out in the 7-11 with everyone staring at you for buying a bottle of water.

Or, if you looked around and people were crinkling their eyebrows at you, I wouldn't assume it was because of the bottled water.

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

#153

Post by haZard_OS »

AstralStorm wrote: post #83
andai wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the best option is to buy bottled water, and then filter out the microplastics.

Most problems with plastics are chemical not physical contamination. (It is a solution of plasticizers and substrates in water.) I am pretty sure ingesting plastic sand would be nowhere newer bad without these. (Intestine shouldn't take that in.) These are extra hard to filter out. Even big fermentation tanks and reverse osmosis filters have problems with this.

There is also the danger of microplastic particles acting as endocrine disruptors. This is a rapidly developing field within (eco)toxicology and is of growing concern among environmental scientists.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.6b01441

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974911...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971...

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

#154

Post by Arbalest »

lopmotr wrote: post #108
djsumdog wrote: post #4

Bottled water is a scam. It's less regulated than municipal tap water in most developed nations, companies suck up water from small towns and use tons of fuel to ship it out of those watersheds and then charge people 1000% markup. For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. Don't buy plastic disposable water bottles if you live in a developed nation. They prop up…

Having a 1000% markup doesn't make it a scam. The raw material is practically free so anything they charge is going to be a huge markup. There's lots of competition and people are willing to buy it. What's wrong with that? You're not paying for the water, but for all the other value that comes along with it. You can carry it around, or store it in your car, or whatever. You don't have to remember to fill up the water…

>It's not being burnt

Not for thermal energy, but it is still being heated and the bits of the hydrocarbon chain that are not wanted are going... where? The process still uses energy and iirc most of the world, particularly where manufacturing occurs, is not using renewables. Maybe Nuclear if you're lucky.

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

#155

Post by photojosh »

tedunangst wrote: post #137
sametmax wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I checked, we had very decent municipal water in France. In many cities it actually tastes better than bottled water. Water sources are quite well protected as well. It's not perfect, but honestly much better than the swimming pool water I drank in the US. So "Europe" is maybe a broad term here.

I think it's weird that whenever the subject of safe drinking water comes up, people immediately talk about how it tastes. As if that matters. I mean, lead is pretty tasty, too.

Nice TIL: lead acetate for me there.

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

#156

Post by always_good »

makecheck wrote: post #97

More than once I felt mild nausea after drinking directly from a bottle, whereas pouring the water out of the bottle into a glass was fine. I suspect it’s not just what’s in the water but the bottle itself that’s not good.

You're saying the mere action of touching your lips to the bottle is what induced nausea?

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

#157

Post by photojosh »

manmal wrote: post #10
djsumdog wrote: post #4

Bottled water is a scam. It's less regulated than municipal tap water in most developed nations, companies suck up water from small towns and use tons of fuel to ship it out of those watersheds and then charge people 1000% markup. For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. Don't buy plastic disposable water bottles if you live in a developed nation. They prop up…

> For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. And until the problem has been fixed, what exactly are they supposed to drink?

I grew up in a developing country. We boiled all our tap water for drinking.

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

#158

Post by flukus »

awareBrah wrote: post #18
djsumdog wrote: post #4

Bottled water is a scam. It's less regulated than municipal tap water in most developed nations, companies suck up water from small towns and use tons of fuel to ship it out of those watersheds and then charge people 1000% markup. For countries without clean water, the effort should be put into getting municipal water supplies. Don't buy plastic disposable water bottles if you live in a developed nation. They prop up…

what do you suggest for people who cannot tolerate the taste of some tap water. The one in my area taste very metallic and makes tea/coffee brewed with it have an unpleasant flavor. I bought a brita-like water filter with great reviews on amazon, but despite that, some of the metallic flavor remains. My old home had a reverse osmosis system which tasted amazing, but I'm not going to invest in a super expensive water…

> what do you suggest for people who cannot tolerate the taste of some tap water

Drink it until you get used to it, people are remarkably adaptable and will get used to just about anything if they're exposed to it long enough. In the case of water a month should be more than enough.

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

#159

Post by nugi »

seszett wrote: post #25

Here are the actual results: https://orbmedia.org/stories/plus-plastic I wish there had been more European water brands tested, as out of this list I only know Evian and San Pellegrino, and they are the two least contaminated brands, but they are also a bit more upscale than what most people drink.

They also tend to come in glass or cans.

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

#160

Post by _0w8t »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #98
TomMarius wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments that do this in Europe fail horribly and just increase prices by huge multiples, nothing else. Last year a whole division of a capital city (Prague) got pretty seriously sick because of government failure. Today in the morning the water did not run at all. Thanks, government. I know HN is very leftist, so I expect downvotes. It'd be nice to have a discussion though.

One occurrence l of failure in one city in one European country is not an indication of ongoing issues in all European countries. Would love to hear about systematic issues in Sweden, Germany, Norway, France, Belgium, Switzerland etc. All have strong government role in regulation and municipal water supplies. Your comment implying political bias for everyone who disagrees with you is cheap rhetoric. And, the US is so…

In Bergen, Norway a few years ago there was a problem with water contamination. Basically city negleted to upgrade the filtering system and after few atipically mild winters and/or population growth near watter sources some microorganisms managed to grow in sufficient quantities to pass through the old very basic filters. People in affected districts were advised to drink bottled water as even boiling watter was not enough to kill all microorganisms.
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