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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

#81

Post by koolba »

guskel wrote: post #60
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…

Say all you want but tap water just doesn't taste as good. Fix that problem and people won't mind switching.

I’ll take NYC tap water against any bottled water worldwide.

Sure it’s totally subjective and anecdata, but my sample size is over 100 brands in 20+ countries.

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

#82

Post by sametmax »

TomMarius wrote: post #62
giltron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason to push for our governments to properly regulate a safe supply of drinking water (infrastructure level).

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.

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.

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

#83

Post by AstralStorm »

andai wrote: post #78
Retric wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can take a lot to filter water safely. The classic carbon filter under the sink does very little to improve safety, even reverse osmosis can fall short. So, while you can make things safer it's far more difficult than many assume.

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.

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

#84

Post by sametmax »

marcosdumay wrote: post #70
foobaw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How much is it because of reality and how much is because pf propaganda? People on Brazil will always tell you to drink bottled water too, yet all the safety issues that make into news (always a very small note at the end of the news) are with bottled water and the sanitary standards are much more strict with tap water.

Indian waters are very, very polluted. And the pipes are in bad shape, so when the rain season arrives, a lot of dirty stuff get inside.

I drink a little bit of public water in asia or africa from time to time because I'm lazy. 99% of the time it's fine. But when it's not, it's heavy brown pants time, and I'm much, MUCH more tolerant than the average white guy when it comes to food poisoning because I traveled so much. In some countries (E.G venezuala), you can get amoebas out of it. And it's really annoying.

So basically yes, bottled water (and check the seal), or soda.

In some countries (e.g mali, sri lanka), they have water pockets, basically small plastic "balloons" of water than you bite then drink from. It uses less plastic than bottles, but yeah, it still finds it's way into the sea.

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

#85

Post by lostconfused »

Falling3 wrote: post #66
therein wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I think these microplastics accumulate in the water after they have been bottled.

I didn't think it had anything to do with plastic from the bottles the water is sold in. Where is that assumption coming from?

"It's not clear how the plastic is getting into the bottled water — whether it's the water source itself or the air or the manufacturing and bottling process.

"Even the simple act of opening the cap could cause plastic to be chipping off the cap," Mason said."

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

#86

Post by Numberwang »

TomMarius wrote: post #62
giltron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason to push for our governments to properly regulate a safe supply of drinking water (infrastructure level).

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.

Well most of western Europe has cheap perfectly drinkable water. I don't think you can blame social democracy. Blame incompetent and corrupt locals.

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

#87

Post by hinkley »

quantumwoke wrote: post #23

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, wh…

We know that a lot of nasty (carcinogenic) chemicals will bond to plastics, poisoning any animal that ingests it.

If you can't get the plastics out of the water you can't get the other chemicals out, because the plastic has already grabbed it.

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

#88

Post by englishrookie »

TomMarius wrote: post #62
giltron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason to push for our governments to properly regulate a safe supply of drinking water (infrastructure level).

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.

Maybe this is different in Eastern Europe (you know, the old Warsaw pact countries), but in Western Europe tap water is of very reliable quality, and consistently delivered.

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

#90

Post by TomMarius »

Numberwang wrote: post #86
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.

Well most of western Europe has cheap perfectly drinkable water. I don't think you can blame social democracy. Blame incompetent and corrupt locals.

The EU as a whole is very comparable to the USA as a whole in terms of competence and corruption. This was my point - somewhere it'd be OK or even very good, but somewhere it's going to be horrible and there is going to be no way out.
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