The study led by experts from the Institute of Environmental Diagnostics and Water Studies (Idaea-CSIC) in collaboration with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) on water marketed in single-use plastic bottles, published in the specialized magazine Chemosphere (December 2023), not only detected microplastics in all but one of the 280 samples analyzed, but also identified plastic additives in all 280 samples analyzed.
In total, the authors of this study on water from 20 commercial brands (15 mineral waters and 5 treated waters) identified 28 additives (products that are added to plastics to improve certain characteristics), among which plasticizers stand out (they soften the plastic and increase its flexibility), stabilizers, lubricants, flame retardants and colorants.
Marianella Farré, researcher at Idae and co-author of the study, highlights, in statements to La Vanguardia, that the research focused on the presence of micro- and nanoplastics but, at the same time, included “a screening by high-resolution mass spectrometry to see “what were the plastic additives present in the water or the profile of those that were the majority.”
“We wanted to see if part of the additives that are normally found in plastics such as those in bottles had leached [from the plastic to the liquid] during the residence time of the water in the bottles and we actually verified that there was a certain degree of leaching,” technically explains Marianella Farré.
In other words, the result of this part of the study is that, indeed, “there was [in the bottled water] a significant amount of both plasticizers and stabilizers and even flame retardants,” the researcher says. Not all samples had traces of the 28 identified additives but none of them were completely free.
The authors of the new study point out in their article that the two plastic additives found in these water samples that can potentially be the most harmful to human health are bis (2-ethylhexyl) adipate, also known as DEHA or DOA, and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate or DEHP. Marinella Farré highlights the new study shows the presence of potentially harmful plasticizers “and, therefore, they should be considered in risk analyzes for consumers.”
Marinella Farré explains that the study had the scientific objective of contributing to the knowledge of the sources of exposure to micro- and nanoplastics, and also to plastic additives, in a Mediterranean population like Barcelona and that no data on commercial brands of water has been included. analyzed “because this was not the objective and because all the samples presented quite similar levels, all of them with extremely low concentrations. Farré assures that they would have acted differently “if a brand had gone really wrong, which has not been the case.”
One of the difficulties in controlling the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in consumer products such as water is that there are no regulations that regulate the levels that are considered harmful to health, partly because until now there were no analysis and quantification methods. like those used now by the Idaea experts. Studies such as the one published now, in this sense, can contribute to scientific knowledge of the problem and the adoption of regulations for the protection of the environment and people’s health.