Does bottled water contain harmful microplastic particles? This story has been in the news lately (such as this article shared with me by @sunying12) and has spurred a lot of discussion on the topic. To get to the bottom of things, I found the original study by Mason et al. (Synthetic Polymer Contamination in Bottled Water) and gave it a read for my new series, “Neiler’s Peer Review.”

So, what do you think? You can leave comments below, or reach out to me on Twitter @the_neiler. Also, remember to check my homepage every Friday for new comics. And if you liked this one, perhaps consider making a small donation to support the series:

References:

Biron M (2016) Industrial Applications of Renewable Plastics (1st Edition). William Andrew, Oxford

Brydson JA (1999) Plastics Materials (7th Edition). Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford

Deng Y et al. (2017) Tissue accumulation of microplastics in mice and biomarker responses suggest widespread health risks of exposure. Sci Rep 7: 46687

Maes T (2017) A rapid-screening approach to detect and quantify microplastics based on fluorescent tagging with Nile Red. Sci Rep 7: 44501

Mason SA et al. (2018) Synthetic Polymer Contamination in Bottled Water. Fredonia State University of New York, New York

Tang BL (2017) Commentary: Tissue accumulation of microplastics in mice and biomarker responses suggest widespread health risks of exposure. Front Environ Sci 5: 63

Wehner M (2018) Major bottled water brands found to be contaminated with microplastics. Accessed March 17, 2018: http://bgr.com/2018/03/15/bottled-water-plastics-contamination-study/

• neiler's peer review