Drinking boiled tap water reduces human intake of nanoplastics and microplastics
Yu Z, Wang JJ, Liu LY, Li Z, Zeng EY (2024). Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
What they found
Boiling tap water made polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene particles co-precipitate with calcium carbonate scale. In hard water (over 120 mg/L CaCO3), boiling removed at least 80% of particles between 0.1 and 150 µm. The authors suggest boiling, then removing the scale, as a simple household step.
- What it can't tell you
- Only three polymers tested, and the abstract does not say how far results rest on added (spiked) particles rather than those naturally in tap water. The headline 80% applies to hard water; the abstract makes no claim for soft water. Particles are trapped in scale, so the benefit depends on not drinking the scale (for example, filtering it out). Measures removal, not any health outcome.
- Funding
- Not checked (full text inaccessible). Crossref lists the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
- Topics
- Drinking water
- Checked against
- Abstract via Crossref metadata (no Europe PMC record found); full text paywalled