XOM - Boiling Water Reduces Microplastics: What Does It Mean For Coca-Cola PepsiCo's Bottled Water Brands? | Benzinga
The understudied threat of microplastics has become a major source of concern for large sectors of the population.
While scientists have not yet identified the exact consequences of living around microscopic pieces of plastic, their presence has been found in everything from drinking water to human tissue to the air we breathe.
According to a new study, an everyday solution could help get rid of as much as 90% of microplastics in tap water by simply boiling and filtering it.
Microplastics: An Invisible Threat
The term “microplastics” refers to small plastic fragments smaller than 5mm, found as contaminants in urban and natural environments.
They come from multiple sources including plastics already produced in those sizes, like synthetic fibers of clothing or microbeads included in cosmetic products, or they can appear as a result of the degradation of larger plastic products, such as single-use plastic containers like soda bottles and plastic bags.
Nanoplastics, the tiniest fragments, measure as small as one millionth of a meter.
Public concern about microplastics has grown in recent years after several studies have found them in almost every inch of the world around us.
In 2022, a study from the Netherlands detected microplastics in the blood of 80% of sampled individuals from the general population, and another study from the same year discovered microplastics in living heart tissue.
A few months ago, a study from Shandong University in China found them in the clouds above East China.
Microplastics are especially present in drinking water. A 2018 study found them in 93% of bottled water from nine different countries, and a recent review highlighted their detection in tap water from ...