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- Try This – News Alert: Bottled Water Is More Toxic Than We Ever Suspected!
Try This – News Alert: Bottled Water Is More Toxic Than We Ever Suspected!
Try This – News Alert: Bottled Water Is More Toxic Than We Ever Suspected!
Hi Everyone!
It probably comes as no shock that chronic use of plastics has some major side effects when it comes to our health.
But I don’t think any of us know just how bad our plastic problem has become.
On Monday, a study out of Columbia University was released that looked at the nanoplastic content of popular water bottles, and the results were shocking.
If you want a reason to cut back on using plastic water bottles, or if you know someone who buys a ton of plastic water bottles, please stay tuned; you’re going to want to read about this.
And later in this article, we’ll talk about how you can protect yourself and your loved ones from these toxins.Let’s jump in!
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What the Heck Are Nanoplastics?
It seems like everywhere we turn, we’re met with plastic! Plastic utensils, plastic packaging on our fruits and veggies, plastic water bottles! Don’t get me wrong, plastics can be incredibly helpful in many areas of our lives, but there are some ways in which they are incredibly damaging and should be avoided.
Many of us are familiar with common toxins in our plastics like BPA, PFAs, and phthalates. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals can impact our body’s ability to produce and regulate hormones and damage our organs. They have even been linked to certain cancers.
These toxins love to not only hang out in our fat, but they also promote the growth of fat in our bodies. That’s why they’re also called obesogens.
A quick note: BPA-free does not necessarily mean a product is safe. BPA-free water bottles contain plastics that can be equally harmful.
What’s especially alarming is that these pervasive plastics break down into tiny particles called nanoplastics that are so small that these toxins can cross our blood-brain barrier and be absorbed into our organs, tissues, and cells, causing MAJOR damage.
Nanoplastics can even cross the placenta, which can have detrimental effects on unborn children, even causing damage to a fetus’s heart, brain, and other organs.
Unfortunately, researchers out of Columbia found some pretty alarming information when they studied three popular brands of plastic water bottles—particularly when it comes to nanoplastics.
Plastic Water Bottles Contain HOW MANY Nanoplastics?
Using a special microscope, researchers were able to identify the types of plastic found in these popular water bottles. (They wouldn’t name the brands, but I’m going to apply this to pretty much any plastic water bottle.)
What they found is on average, a liter of the sampled water had “240,000 detectable plastic fragments,” which is between 10 and 100 times more plastic than they previously believed!
Researchers were able to identify some of the compounds they found, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), nylon, styrofoam, and even plexiglass.
The craziest part is that of all the plastics that they found, 90 percent were considered nanoplastics.
When these particles are large, they’re not as concerning, but as they continue to break down and get smaller and smaller, that’s when the real trouble starts.
Unfortunately, these plastics are showing up everywhere: in our clothing, in our oceans, and even in the air we breathe.
Even though this is scary, we can take action by dramatically reducing our water consumption from plastic water bottles.
A quick note: They also found plastic from the actual water filters used for the water in the bottles. While I’m not sure what kind of plastic was used in these water filters or the quality of the filters, I do still think it’s better to filter our water rather than not filter it. There are so many contaminants like hexanes, PFAs, lead, and other toxins in our tap water. For now, this is a point of discussion that I think requires more investigation.
Try This: Reduce Your Plastic Water Bottle Use
Use a high-quality water filter. If you want to avoid tap and bottled water, invest in your own high-quality water filter. I’ve recommended AquaTru Carafe and the Zero Water Filter Pitcher in the past, but there are plenty of fantastic options out there. I like AquaTru because their countertop filter is glass (which is super rare and a good option if you’re trying to avoid plastics) and uses reverse-osmosis technology, which offers some of the strongest protection against contaminants in water.
Take a stainless steel water bottle with you. I always take a stainless steel water bottle with me so that I can fill up at a friend’s place or bring water from home. I’m not perfect, so I sometimes forget to take this while traveling by air, but I do my best because most airports have water stations where you can fill up your water bottle. The goal here is not to be perfect or beat ourselves up if we forget, but instead try to make these practices habitual so eventually it becomes second nature to take your own water bottle with you.
Opt for glass water bottles when possible. If you forget your water bottle at home, opt for glass water bottles when possible. Many restaurants and even airports have glass water options available. If you’re buying bottled water at the grocery store, my favorites include Mountain Valley Spring and Gerolsteiner. I wrote more about this here.
Again, the goal here is not to be perfect and live in a plastic-free bubble. The goal is to reduce our exposure as much as possible. Sometimes there are no other options, and you’re really thirsty! This is just a fact of life. But these are tips we can implement hopefully 85–90 percent of the time to avoid these pervasive and harmful nanoplastics.
Unfortunately, there are cities here in the United States where plastic water bottles are still being offered as the best possible choice for citizens, which is frankly shameful. I hope that our government will step up and provide residents of these cities with better options to protect their health and the health of their children. For now, all we can do is spread the word about this important study and do our best to reduce the amount of plastics in our lives. Please share this article with everyone you know. You never know who needs to see it!
Here’s to your health, Dhru Purohit