The tap water that we use to drink is contaminated with microscopic plastic fibers.
This is the conclusion of a new study that analyzed 159 samples taken in different countries on five continents
Pollution does not distinguish between rich and poor nations. This is what the researchers from the State University of New York and the University of Minnesota pointed out. Those who participated in the study commissioned by Orb Media, a nonprofit organization in Washington DC.
Of all the samples collected, 83% contained microplastics.
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The country with the highest rate was the United States with 94%, where samples were taken at the Capitol, the Trump Tower in New York and the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC among others.
Lebanon (93.8%) and India (82.4%) are the countries that remain on the list.
The samples also offer indices for Ecuador, with 79.2% and Europe (72.2%), among others.
Origin
It is not known with certainty how these polluting fibers came into tap water. A place of evident origin is the atmosphere, which contains fibers that are released by the use of synthetic clothing and carpets.
They also enter the sewage system from laundry washes – according to a recent study, each washing cycle in a washing machine can release 700,000 fibers into the environment – and from the fragmentation of larger pieces of plastic, which are mostly not They are biodegradable.
It is also not known what implications this may have for human health, but experts fear that these fibers are capable of transferring toxins, as a sort of bridge between dangerous chemicals from water and the human body.
“We have enough data from studies on the impact on wildlife” to be concerned, Mason said.
“If it has an impact on them (the animals), how do we think it will not have an impact on us?”
Bottle water
Another piece of information that the study showed is that the problem is not confined to running water: microplastics were also found in a couple of US bottled water samples.
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Each year about 300 million tons of plastic are produced, of which only 20% are recycled or incinerated.
The rest ends up in the air, the land or the sea.
According to a recent study, more than 8,300 million tons of plastic have been produced worldwide since the 1950s.
Alkanatur
With our filters we ensure that you will be safe from the micro plastics that come in the tap water. However, it is everyone’s job to change our type of consumption since it is our daily decisions that can only reverse this situation.
