Study Finds Almost All Drinking Water Is Contaminated With Plastic

Researchers find that 94 percent of U.S. drinking water is contaminated with microplastics.

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So much of the objects in our lives are built with plastic, so it's no surprise that the stuff gets everywhere. But the scale of plastic pollution is mind boggling. Most of our plastic trash ends up in the ocean, and around 8 million tons of the stuff enters our waterways every year. Given that fact, it's not surprising that tons of the stuff are showing up even on the remotest islands in the world, but it might surprise you to know that plastic is also showing up in your own drinking water.

Investigators from Orb Media tested samples of tap water from around the globe, and found that almost all of it was contaminated by microplastics. The U.S. had the highest contamination rate of all the countries studied, with 94 percent of samples contaminated. The global average is 83 percent.

The researchers found traces of 'microplastics,' which are microscopic plastic fibers formed when larger pieces of plastic are broken down and eroded. Some of these pieces of plastic have been in our waterways for decades and have broken down into smaller and smaller pieces over time. Another source of microplastics is washing machines, which can produce hundreds of thousands of fibers per cycle.

It's not clear whether microplastics pose a danger to humans, but it is likely, given past research. Microplastics are known to absorb toxic chemicals, which can be released into the human body. Microplastics can also act as a vector for harmful bacteria. Still, the researchers have yet to tie microplastics to any particular health concern.

So what can you do to ensure your drinking water is plastic-free? The short answer is, not much. Microplastics are too small to be caught by most water filters, nearly every source of water is contaminated, and microplastics have even been found inside bottled water.

This isn't necessarily cause for panic, but it does mean we need to rethink how we use plastics. Only a small percentage of our plastic products are recycled, and our own wastefulness got us into this predicament in the first place. If we want water free of microplastics we may have to rethink a lot of how we use and discard those plastics.

Source: Orb Media via The Guardian

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