Research on Commercial Brands in Norway
Consuming 2L Daily Results in Annual Intake of 120 Trillion Units
Shock has been caused by the detection of nano plastics in water contained in bottled water purchased in Norway. Nano plastics refer to plastic particles smaller than 1㎛ (micrometer, one-thousandth of a millimeter) in diameter.
An international research team consisting of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, China's Nankai University, and Belgium's Ghent University recently published a paper measuring the concentration of plastics in bottled water in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology.
The research team conducted experiments using bottled water products from four commonly purchased brands in Norway. The method involved filtering the bottled water samples and then analyzing the water that passed through the filter membrane.
The pore diameter of the filter membrane was 0.1㎛, which can filter out most nano plastics. The nano plastics caught on the filter membrane were observed using a high-precision electron microscope. This testing method applied the relatively recently developed "surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy" to detect nano plastics more accurately.
Analysis results showed that the water contained in PET bottles had an average of 166 million nano plastic particles per 1 milliliter (ml). If an adult consumes 2 liters (ℓ) of water per day and a child consumes 1ℓ per day, adults would ingest 120 trillion and children 54 trillion nano plastic particles annually. This is a much higher level than the microplastic intake levels reported in previous studies.
Regarding this, the research team explained, "The nano plastics present in bottled water distributed in the market may be due to contamination of the bottle itself, but contamination can also occur from the source of water or during the product packaging process."
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