BOTTLED water can contain hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles, a study warns.
Nanoplastics — those broken down into progressively smaller bits — are consumed by people worldwide every day.
AlamyBottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles, a study warns[/caption]
Health fears are growing as they can invade our bloodstream, organs and even individual cells.
Scientists using lasers on three brands of bottled water popular in the US found an average of 240,000 particles per litre.
They identified them down to a width of 100 nanometres — a thousand times thinner than a hair — but there could be even more smaller particles.
And they were only able to trace the origins of around ten per cent.
Report co-author Wei Min, of the University of Columbia, said: “Previously this was just a dark area, uncharted
“But there is a huge world of nanoplastics to be studied.
“The study of nanoplastics matters because, the smaller things are, the more easily they can get inside us.”
The team now plans to investigate tap water.