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Friday, March 30, 2018

The unexpected always surprises us

Por sumily

Experts have started a study with water and soda bottles and detected plastic particles in them. Faced with such alarming situation, the BBC contacted the companies involved and the majority responded.Nestlé said that it has carried out its own internal tests for microplastics for more than two years and that they had not detected anything by "above the normal level".

The German brand Gerolsteiner also said that it had been analyzing the water in search of microplastics for several years and that the results showed levels "significantly below the limits for particles" established for pharmaceutical companies.He also said that his measures exceeded industry standards, but added that the micro particles are "everywhere" so the possibility of entering the product from the ambient air or packaging materials during the bottling process can not discard completely.

The results of a new investigation are appalling, almost all the water bottles of the main brands contain small plastic particles.According to an investigation conducted by the journalism organization Orb Media whose tests were carried out at the State University of New York, United States, to carry out the study, 250 bottles purchased in nine different countries were examined and an average of 10 particles was discovered plastic per liter, each larger than the width of a human hair.

Speaking to the BBC, the companies whose brands were tested said that their bottling plants operate to the highest standards.The chemistry professor at the university who participated in the analysis, Sherri Mason, said they found plastic bottle after bottle and brand after brand. In this case, the purpose of the research is not to point out to brands in particular, what is really important to demonstrate is that this is everywhere, that plastic has become such a pervasive material in our society that is impregnating the water, all the products that we consume at a very basic level.

Currently, there is no evidence that ingesting very small pieces of plastic can cause harm, but science tries to understand the potential implications.In a review of the results, Professor Mason considered that the numbers we are seeing are not catastrophic, but it is worrisome.

Other experts were of the opinion that people in developing countries where tap water may be contaminated should continue to drink water from plastic bottles.In 2017, Professor Mason found plastic particles in samples of running water and other researchers detected them in fish and seafood, beer, sea salt and even in the air.

The research on bottled water included the purchase of packages of 11 national and international brands in different countries chosen for their large population or relatively high consumption of bottled water.The main international brands studied were Aquafina, Evian, Dasani, San Pellegrino, NestlePureLife and the main brands analyzed by country were Aqua (Indonesia), Bisleri (India), Gerolsteiner (Germany), Epura (Mexico), Wahaha (China) and Minalba (Brazil).

There are no regulations on microplastics or a scientific consensus on how to analyze them. A smaller German study conducted last year found plastic particles in single-use bottles but not over a statistically significant amount.