News • Sustainable Farming Campaign
Risks of microplastic in bottled water
The World Health Organization is to review the potential risks of plastic in drinking water. Following investigations which found microplastics in bottled water the review will assess the potential damage of ingesting plastic over a long period.
Bruce Gordon, coordinator of the WHO’s global work on water and sanitation, told BBC News that the key question was whether a lifetime of eating or drinking particles of plastic could have an effect.
"When we think about the composition of the plastic, whether there might be toxins in it, to what extent they might carry harmful constituents, what actually the particles might do in the body – there's just not the research there to tell us.
This comes as researchers found that 90% of the world’s most popular bottled water brands contain tiny pieces of plastic. Scientists at the State University of New York in Fredonia found concentrations as high as 10,000 plastic pieces for every litre of water.
Published Thursday 15 March 2018
Sustainable Farming Campaign: Sustain encourages integration of sustainable food and farming into local, regional and national government policies.
