The plastic in your water bottle is as small as a micron.Using new laser techniques, biophysicists at Columbia and Rutgers universities discovered about 250,000 pieces of nanoplastics per liter of five different brands of bottled water, says Andrew Wong, MD, primary care provider for the Hartford HealthCare Medical Group in Westport."These are a micron in size. For reference, a strand of hair is 80 microns in width," says Dr. Wong. "There have been studies on what's visible to the naked eye, but not to this number."The pieces, he says, are polyethylene plastic molecules broken off from the bottles or the plastic filters used in production.>Relatert: Påvirker skjulte 'Forever Chemicals' helsen din?
Plastic won't affect the taste, but could be dangerous to consume.While not affecting the water's taste or texture, it's possible the plastic can be dangerous to consume, Dr. Wong says."We know certain types of plastic carcinogenic, but they're not used to make plastic bottles. Yet, we know water bottle waste affects multiple systems in sea life," he says.The body can absorb the particles and even cross the blood/brain barrier to trigger cellular structure or DNA damage."We know cancer has increased 13% in the last 10 years in people under 50, probably the biggest consumers of bottled water," Dr. Wong begins. "We also know the risk of colon cancer is two to four times higher in people born after 1990."At the same time, he notes a 15% increase in digestive disorders like inflammatory bowel and Crohn's diseases."We don't know the cause of these increases, so now need to investigate the impact of plastic water bottles," Dr. Wong says.>Vil du ha flere helsenyheter? Send StartHere til 85209 for å registrere deg for tekstvarsler
3 sikrere måter å drikke vannet på. Det har ikke vært noen tiltak for å begrense tilgjengeligheten av flaskevann, men Dr. Wong foreslår disse alternativene for å få inn vannet:
Bruk aluminium- eller glassbeholdere.
Drikk vann fra springen.
Filtrer vann gjennom en keramisk eller karbonbasert vannenhet.
Men hvis du bruker vannflasker av plast, ikke gjør denne feilen. Liker du fortsatt det enkle med vannflasker i plast?" Bare ikke utsett dem for varme eller sol, som å la dem ligge i en bil om dagen. Solen forårsaker plasten til å bryte ned, sier Dr. Wong.
