[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":140},["ShallowReactive",2],{"protocol-en-tap-over-bottled-water":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":112,"cost":113,"description":12,"effort":114,"evidenceGrade":25,"evidenceType":115,"extension":116,"icon":117,"impact":118,"meta":119,"navigation":120,"order":121,"path":122,"seo":123,"sources":124,"stem":136,"summary":137,"tldr":138,"__hash__":139},"protocols_en\u002Fen\u002Fprotocols\u002Ftap-over-bottled-water.md","Choose tap over bottled water",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":105},"minimark",[9,13,18,46,50,87,91,98],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Bottled water is one of the largest measured sources of plastic particles in the diet. Switching to tap is the most quantifiable particle-reduction swap you can make. The exposure cut is real and measurable. The health payoff downstream is not yet proven.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"what-to-do","What to do",[19,20,21,33,40],"ul",{},[22,23,24,28,29,32],"li",{},[25,26,27],"strong",{},"Default to tap water"," for everyday drinking. Carry it in a ",[25,30,31],{},"glass or stainless-steel"," bottle instead of a single-use plastic one.",[22,34,35,36,39],{},"Want extra reassurance? ",[25,37,38],{},"Filter the tap water."," A membrane or sub-micron filter performs best. Basic carbon pitcher filters are unreliable.",[22,41,42,45],{},[25,43,44],{},"Don't panic about the occasional bottled water."," This is about your daily default, not a ban. No evidence shows that the particles in bottled water cause harm at current exposure levels.",[14,47,49],{"id":48},"why-it-works","Why it works",[19,51,52,63,69,80],{},[22,53,54,55,58,59,62],{},"A 2024 PNAS study used a new high-resolution imaging method, stimulated Raman scattering, and found bottled water held an average of ",[25,56,57],{},"~240,000 plastic particles per litre"," (range 110,000 to 370,000), with about ",[25,60,61],{},"90% of them nanoplastics",".",[22,64,65,66,62],{},"A separate comparison using the same method (Ohio State) found bottled water carries roughly ",[25,67,68],{},"3x more nanoplastic than treated tap",[22,70,71,72,75,76,79],{},"For intake, the most-cited estimate puts bottled-water drinkers at about ",[25,73,74],{},"90,000 extra particles per year"," against roughly ",[25,77,78],{},"4,000 for tap drinkers"," (Cox et al. 2019). These are particle counts with wide uncertainty, and they cover only part of the diet, so treat them as order-of-magnitude figures.",[22,81,82,83,86],{},"One piece of context on the headline number. The ~240,000\u002FL figure reflects a ",[25,84,85],{},"detection advance",": the method sees down to 100 nm, so it finds 10 to 100x more than older studies. It is not proof that bottled water is getting dirtier.",[14,88,90],{"id":89},"the-honest-caveat","The honest caveat",[10,92,93,94,97],{},"This is an ",[25,95,96],{},"exposure-reduction"," measure, not a proven health benefit. The WHO has concluded that the available evidence does not demonstrate a health risk from plastic particles in drinking water at current levels, while flagging real data gaps. Switching reliably lowers how many particles you swallow. But no one has shown that doing so prevents any disease.",[10,99,100,101,104],{},"It also isn't ",[25,102,103],{},"universal",". A UK study found tap and bottled water indistinguishable for microplastics. Local tap quality varies, and where a supply tests poorly for other contaminants, bottled or filtered water may still make sense. The general pattern favours tap.",{"title":106,"searchDepth":107,"depth":107,"links":108},"",2,[109,110,111],{"id":16,"depth":107,"text":17},{"id":48,"depth":107,"text":49},{"id":89,"depth":107,"text":90},"Water","free","low","particle","md","lucide:droplet","high",{},true,1,"\u002Fen\u002Fprotocols\u002Ftap-over-bottled-water",{"title":5,"description":12},[125,129,132],{"title":126,"url":127,"year":128,"type":115},"Rapid single-particle chemical imaging of nanoplastics by SRS microscopy (Qian et al.)","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.pnas.org\u002Fdoi\u002F10.1073\u002Fpnas.2300582121","2024",{"title":130,"url":131,"year":128,"type":115},"Some bottled water worse than tap for microplastics, study shows (Ohio State)","https:\u002F\u002Fnews.osu.edu\u002Fsome-bottled-water-worse-than-tap-for-microplastics-study-shows\u002F",{"title":133,"url":134,"year":135,"type":115},"Human Consumption of Microplastics (Cox et al.), Environ. Sci. Technol.","https:\u002F\u002Fpubs.acs.org\u002Fdoi\u002F10.1021\u002Facs.est.9b01517","2019","en\u002Fprotocols\u002Ftap-over-bottled-water","Switching from bottled to filtered tap water cuts a large, measurable share of the plastic particles you swallow, though the health benefit is unproven.","Default to filtered tap water in a glass or steel bottle and skip single-use bottled water.","A2qj06ef_a6CpIjsoANBlMaSdL_G1gWbIBCvHMgY38g",1780844468478]