Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cbc.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 166 posts

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

#21

Post by foobaw »

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…

When I visited India, the locals recommended me to always drink bottled water or else I'd get really sick.

Maybe in the US, it can be solved on a city-by-city basis. For some other countries, I think it's a much more complex problem.

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

#22

Post by pfarnsworth »

Now that we know that microplastics are in our water supply, what do we do to protect ourselves? Do reverse osmosis filters, etc, at home get rid of these plastics? It certainly sounds dangerous and scary but I don't know what I need to do or should do, which is frustrating.

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

#23

Post by quantumwoke »

For anyone else wondering what effect microplastics actually have on the human body, it looks like the effects are still up in the air. Animal studies [0] show that microplastics can be taken up by tissue and circulation, and they are also present in the air [1]. Not sure what impact drinking bottled water would have on concentration inside the body. I couldn't find any long term studies on their effect on cancer, which is my main concern for any foreign contaminant entering the body.

Food (or drink :) for thought!

[0] https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ieam.5...

[1] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71279-6_...

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

#25

Post by seszett »

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.

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

#26

Post by jaclaz »

Jyaif wrote: post #3

According to them: Avoid Nestle Pure Life. San Pellegrino, Evian, and Dasani are OK.

>According to them: Avoid Nestle Pure Life. San Pellegrino, Evian, and Dasani are OK.

Naah, water is usually bottled locally, they tested some brands in:

U.S., Kenya, China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico and Thailand

(and called it "global"), but a same brand may - even in the same country - come from a different spring or bottling plant, so you are never "safe" (nor "in danger") because of this or that brand.

Just in case the actual "paper" (actualy only a "report"):

https://orbmedia.org/sites/default/files/FinalBottledWaterRe...

And as a side note/observation, the classification of any plastic particle smaller than 5 millimeters as "microplastics" has been given (and it makes sense) in the context of marine/ocean related sciences:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics

it makes (to me) little sense to call "micro" anything that can be seen by the naked eye in the context of impurities in a bottle of water.

5 mm?

Come on, they are nearly the size of marbles we played with as kids ...

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

#27

Post by monort »

ceejayoz wrote: post #12
manmal wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 suspect most developing areas without clean water supplies are simultaneously unable to afford buying bottled water. They're often drinking dirty water, which they may or may not treat.

Bottled water is cheap, they buy it in 5 gallon bottles. I've seen that in many countries.

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

#28

Post by guelo »

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?

Third world countries I'm familiar with use the big office-type bottles which are reusable and not as wasteful. https://i.stack.imgur.com/TfVHl.jpg

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

#29

Post by artursapek »

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.

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

#30

Post by petre »

foobaw wrote: post #21
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…

When I visited India, the locals recommended me to always drink bottled water or else I'd get really sick. Maybe in the US, it can be solved on a city-by-city basis. For some other countries, I think it's a much more complex problem.

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.
Post reply on HN