Microplastics in tap and bottled water: what the review found
A systematic review of studies from 2010 to 2024 reports a wide range of microplastic counts: tap water from 0.7 particles per litre in rural areas to 1753 in urban surface water, bottled water up to 8934 particles per litre for the 1–50 µm range. The authors attribute the high bottled-water figures to packaging degradation.
Conventional treatment steps — coagulation with sedimentation, membrane filtration — removed between 40 and 99 percent of particles, with the result depending strongly on particle size and polymer properties.
Estimated daily intake for infants came out two to three times higher than for adults. The authors also name the limits of the measurements themselves: particles below one micrometre are largely undetected by current methods, and size classification differs between studies, which is why they call for a single protocol.
The figures come from a body of studies conducted in China and do not transfer to other countries without qualification.
Original source
Occurrence, Characteristics, and Risk Assessment of Microplastics in Tap Water and Bottled Water, ChinaOpen the original ↗Related category
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