Synthetic polymer contamination in bottled water
Mason SA, Welch VG, Neratko J (2018). Frontiers in Chemistry.
What they found
93% of 259 bottles showed some microplastic contamination. After blank correction there were on average 10.4 particles per litre larger than 100 µm, and about 325 per litre when Nile Red-stained particles down to 6.5 µm were counted. Polypropylene, the usual cap plastic, made up 54% of confirmed polymers, pointing partly at packaging and bottling.
- Sample
- 259 bottles of 11 brands bought in 9 countries
- What it can't tell you
- Particles under 100 µm were counted by Nile Red staining alone and not confirmed by spectroscopy; the dye can also stain some non-plastics, so the 325/L figure is likely an overestimate of plastic. Only half of the larger particles were FTIR-confirmed as polymer. Single lab, one purchase round per location. Measures contamination, not health effects.
- Funding
- No funding statement in the paper; authors declare no commercial or financial conflicts. Orb Media (a nonprofit newsroom) did the market analysis and bought and shipped the samples, per the acknowledgements.
- Topics
- Drinking water, Packaging
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 30255015); COI and acknowledgements from open-access full text (PMC6141690)