--- title: Bottled Water: You Could Be Drinking Tiny Bits of Plastic description: Microplastic contamination was found to be nearly universal in plastic water bottles from 11 major brands, a new study says canonical: https://time.com/5200680/microplastic-water-bottle-orb-study/ author: Laignee Barron article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-15T04:31:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:39:25.439Z article:section: Science og:title: Most Bottled Water Found to Contain Tiny Plastic Particles og:description: A single bottle could have dozens or even thousands of microplastic particles og:url: https://time.com/5200680/microplastic-water-bottle-orb-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71d589d98aa35fcf/69892aec86f68eb6ae6e89b7/gettyimages-183599503.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: Thirst og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Most Bottled Water Found to Contain Tiny Plastic Particles twitter:description: A single bottle could have dozens or even thousands of microplastic particles twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71d589d98aa35fcf/69892aec86f68eb6ae6e89b7/gettyimages-183599503.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Microplastic Contamination Is Found in Most Bottled Water, a New Study Says > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Laignee Barron](https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Mar 15, 2018 4:31 AM UTC  A boy drinks a from a bottle of water. A boy drinks a from a bottle of water. Kelly Sillaste—Getty Images by [Laignee Barron](https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Mar 15, 2018 4:31 AM UTC Drinking from a plastic water bottle likely means ingesting microplastic particles, a new study claims, prompting fresh concerns — and calls for scientific research — on the possible health implications of widespread plastics pollution. A study carried out on more than 250 water bottles sourced from 11 brands in nine different countries revealed that Microplastic contamination was [nearly universal](https://orbmedia.org/stories/plus-plastic), found in more than 90% of the samples. [The study](https://orbmedia.org/sites/default/files/FinalBottledWaterReport.pdf), by journalism organization Orb Media and researchers at the State University of New York at Fredonia, found an average of 10.4 microplastic particles about the width of a human hair per liter. That’s about twice the level of contamination discovered in the group’s earlier study on the ubiquitous plastic contamination [in tap water](http://time.com/4928759/plastic-fiber-tap-water-study/) across the globe, with the highest rate found in the U.S. Previous [studies](https://www.iucn.org/news/secretariat/201702/invisible-plastic-particles-textiles-and-tyres-major-source-ocean-pollution-%E2%80%93-iucn-study) have found that a large portion of the microplastic particles found in our oceans, lakes and rivers, as well as in fish stomachs, can be traced back to the washing of synthetic clothes. In the case of bottled water, Orb’s new study indicated contamination was partly the result of plastic packaging, and partly the fault of the bottling process. The survey included brands like Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestlé and San Pellegrino. It’s unclear what effect, if any, this consumption of tiny bits of plastics has on human health. As much as 90% of ingested plastic could pass through a human body, but some of it may end up lodged in the gut, or traveling through the lymphatic system, according to [research](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4501/epdf) by the European Food Safety Authority. “We don’t know all the chemicals in plastics, even… There’s so many unknowns here,” Jane Muncke, chief scientist at the Zurich-based Food Packaging Forum, told Orb. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5200680/microplastic-water-bottle-orb-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5200680/microplastic-water-bottle-orb-study/"},"headline":"Microplastic Contamination Is Found in Most Bottled Water, a New Study Says","datePublished":"2018-03-15T04:31:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:39:25.439Z","description":"There is little understanding or data on how this effects human health","url":"https://time.com/5200680/microplastic-water-bottle-orb-study/","keywords":["Environment","onetime","healthytime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71d589d98aa35fcf/69892aec86f68eb6ae6e89b7/gettyimages-183599503.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laignee Barron","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71d589d98aa35fcf/69892aec86f68eb6ae6e89b7/gettyimages-183599503.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Thirst","caption":"Thirst","creditText":"Kelly Sillaste—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5200680/microplastic-water-bottle-orb-study/","name":"Microplastic Contamination Is Found in Most Bottled Water, a New Study Says"}}]}] ```