Bottled water is a water packaged in plastic or glass bottles after purification. It is generally known as natural mineral water, spring water, or treated water. It is consumed directly through drinking or indirectly through prepared food for nourishment.
Considering that bottled water goes through a treatment process before packaging, we assume that it is safe. Unfortunately, this is not the case. So, let’s dive into why one should stop drinking bottled water and switch to other safer alternatives.
Global production and consumption of bottled water
Increasing awareness about the contaminants in the tap water has led to people turning to bottled water. Bottled water is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to drink clean water. This shift has caused massive growth in the global bottled water market, with an annual production of 89 billion liters of bottled water, worth US $22 billion.
Globally, Western Europeans have the highest reliance on bottled water, with 85 liters of consumption/per person/year. However, there was an annual 15% increase in bottled water consumption in Asia and the Pacific for 1999-2001.
The average global consumption of bottled water grows by 7% every year. Evian takes the lead in the still water industry, but local vendors still capture 75% of the world market.
Why do people turn to drinking bottled water?
The following reasons have led to an increase in the consumption of bottled water.
It tastes better than tap water. Bottled water is treated to remove excess fluoride and chlorine, making it safer and taste better. Water treatment also eliminates water-borne microorganisms, which is always a concern. People perceive it as pure and safe, but it’s not necessarily true.
Also, Health-conscious people prefer buying bottled water instead of sugary beverages, thinking they are doing good for themselves as plain water is always better than tons of sugar in a can of soda.
Increasing urbanization has made a massive change in people’s quality of life. Bottled water has become a necessary part of modern and fast-paced life. It is convenient: available everywhere, in every size, light and easy to carry, easy to dispose, inexpensive, wide range of brands to choose and so on.
Over the years, the decline in tap water quality has made a massive shift towards the use of bottled water. Chlorine, fluoride, manganese, arsenic, sulphuric, heavy metals, industrial waste, microplastics, and sewage contamination have made tap water unfit for drinking in many communities. The bottled water goes through a purification process to remove these nasty substances.
History of packaging of bottled water
For a long time, the bottled water was first available in thick glass bottles. During the 1960s and 1970s, the mass production of cheap plastic replaced glass with plastic bottles to reduce costs and increase production. Initially, water was packaged in PVC (vinyl polyclorure). Later on, it was replaced with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) because of its toxic impact on the body and environment.
Why should you stop drinking bottled water?
The presence of microplastics (MPs) in bottled water is a contaminant of emerging concern (CEC), not only for human health but for the environment as well. Therefore, you need to stop drinking bottled water.
Microplastics are particles of plastics less than 5mm and greater than 1μm. Less than 1μm plastic is considered nanoplastics. Most scientists/papers consider nanoplastics in the microplastic category and aren’t categorized separately.
The degradation of plastics or formation of micro and nanoplastics takes place by two mechanisms:
- Biotic degradation performed by microbes
- Abiotic degradation is performed by UV exposure or frictional degradation during packaging and usage.
What kind of microplastics are there in bottled water?
Bottled water is most likely to contain Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polyethylene (PE), and Polypropylene (PP) particles because most single-use plastic bottles are made up of PET while their caps are from PE and PP.
Other less common microplastics are Polystyrene (PS), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polyamide (PA), Polycarbonate (PC), Polyurethane (PU), and Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).
How do microplastics get into the water?
Microplastic contamination occurs due to friction during daily usage of bottles, such as squeezing, drinking, carrying, and handling bottles. From their manufacture to disposal, the bottles are exposed to different pressures such as filling, caping, labeling, transportation, storage, squeezing, UV exposure, and high temperatures.
The plastics used for bottled water is a low-grade thin plastic which continues to release MPs, additives, and unreacted monomers proggressively contaminating the water till it reaches the mouth.
Also, the water impurities increase with the age of the bottle. The newly filled PET bottles are relatively safer than old packaged bottles placed in the UV light and at high temperatures. The bottles made out of Recycled PET (rPET ) are even worse than PET as they release more MPs.
Microplastics’ toxicity is also attributed to additives added to the plastic during manufacture to improve its properties and control their degradation. The most common ones are epoxy resins, antioxidants, plasticizers (i.e., phthalates, adipates, etc.), flame retardants (i.e., PBDEs, antimony, etc.), stabilizers (i.e., BPA, cadmium, and lead compounds, BHA, etc.), acid scavengers, light and heat stabilizers, lubricants, colorants and pigments, and thermal stabilizers, etc. These chemicals are weakly bonded (by van der Waals bonds) to the polymers and leach out in the water and cause damage to the body..
Why is it a concern to consume bottled water?
Bottled water causes far more damage than other sources because water is life, and it hydrates the body. On average, an adult drinks 6-8 glasses of water daily, so the more you drink, the greater the burden of microplastics you will get. Direct and long-term exposure to microplastics is hazardous, especially to vulnerable people such as children and sick people.
The plastic bottled water contains 7 times more plastics (1410p/L – particles/liter) than the water contained in a glass bottle (204p/L). In glass bottles, the plastic lining the undersurface of the caps releases MPs in the water. Bottlecaps are also a significant contributor to MP contamination.
When the cap is turned to open the bottle, the cap-neck pressure causes the release of MPs in the water. In other words, the number of times and the pressure with which a bottle is opened corresponds to MP contamination. The MPs exist in the water as foam, fragments, fibers, film and spheres.
What do microplastics do to your body?
Almost 90% of the ingested plastic is eliminated from the body through feces, but the percentage that remains in the body is unclear. World Health Organization (WHO) presented a report in 2019 stating that there is no evidence that MPs in bottled water affect human health.
It is a topic of conflict and there is an ongoing debate among the scientific communities in the light of latest evidence.
It is essential to understand that small exposure to MPs may not cause any harm to the body, but prolonged exposure in the form of drinking water can be devastating to the body.
The adverse effects of MPs bank on the duration, size, amount of exposure and immunity of the individual. Nanoparticles are more toxic to the system than microplastics because of their smaller size. Microplastics greater than 100μm are eliminated from the body through feces while smaller particles enter the circulation. Also, a substantial burden of MPs is linked to more toxic side effects.
There aren’t enough human trials that show the devastating effects of microplastics on human health. But we know that it produces free radicals when it contacts human cells. These free radicals cause inflammation, damage cellular mitochondria (the energy-generating house in the cell), and are toxic to immune cells and nerves.
Also, the release of additives, and unreacted monomers from plastics may cause oxidative stress, impair lipid metabolism, endocrine disruption and cancers. Plastics mimicks estrogen and bind to estrogen receptors and play a role in endocrine cancers such as breast and ovarian cancer.
Moreover, the MPs exert the trojan horse effect by adsorbing inorganic and organic contaminants (loosely bind with them) from the surroundings and transferring them to the body. For instance, they can absorb heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), antibiotics, endocrines disrupting chemicals, bacteria, and viruses from their surroundings.
How much does an individual consume plastics per year through bottled water?
People drinking bottled water ingest 22.5 (90,000MPs/year) times more micro and nano-plastics annually than the ones drinking tap water (4000MPs/year). However, this assessment is underestimated as sensitive and expensive tests are required to detect nanoparticles and microplastics less than 10micrometer in water. Most tests detect plastics up to 10micrometer.
From several studies, it has been established that adults and children are estimated to have an annual exposure of 97000-133000MPs/year and 67,000-78,000MP’s/year, respectively.
Zuccarello estimated that the Daily Intake of MPs for adult from bottled water is 40 μg/kg/body-weight/day. For instance, a 60kg adult ingests around 2,400 μg MPs/day.
what are the safe alternatives to bottled water?
American Chemical Society, Environmental Science & Technology Letters recommends boiling and filtering calcium in tap water, which could help remove 90% of micro and nanoplastics.
Another option is the reverse osmosis system and is by far the best filtration system. The semipermeable membrane used in reverse osmosis has tiny holes measuring 0.0001 micrometers.
Conclusion
The presence of microplastics in bottled water is a contaminant of emerging concern, not only for human health but for the environment as well. Therefore, you should stop drinking bottled water and switch to other ways.