Soft drinks company Coca-Cola has launched its own study to
ascertain the presence of micro-plastics in Dasani bottled water
following a report published on Thursday indicating that the product is
among world famous brands contaminated by tiny pieces of plastic.
Coca-Cola
in a statement said it has “not verified the findings” and stated that
it has some of the most stringent quality standards in the industry.
The
study, which tested 259 bottles sold by 11 brands purchased in 19
locations in nine different countries, said that concentration of
microplastics in Dasani water sourced in Kenya topped 335 plastic pieces
for every litre. Samples of Dasani water bought from Amazon had a
minimum and maximum concentration of 85 and 303 plastic pieces per
litre, respectively.
“We stand by the safety of our
products, and welcome continued study of plastics in our environment,”
Coca-Cola said in a statement.
“However, as a precautionary measure we have constituted a
project team that will carry out a similar study, with a view to
ascertaining if the findings in the study are valid. This independent
study will inform our subsequent course of action,” said Coca-Cola.
The
presence of plastics does not however indicate that the water is
harmful to health, since studies on their effects to the human body are
yet to be conducted.
The survey by scientists based at
the State University of New York, and commissioned by a non-profit media
organisation Orb, analysed bottled water sourced from Kenya, Indonesia,
India, the US, Lebanon, Thailand, China, Mexico, Brazil and e-commerce
platform Amazon.
Samples from Nestle Pure Life brand
sourced from the US had the highest concentration at 10,390 plastic
pieces a litre. The study revealed that contamination was partially
coming from the packaging or the bottling process.
The latest survey follows a tap water study released in September last year showing the level of plastic pieces concentration.
“We found roughly twice as many plastic particles within bottled water as compared to tap water on average,” the study said.
UK
medical journal Lancet in an article published in October 2017 on
Microplastics and Human Health says that while no one has come out to
quantify the effects of microplastics on human beings, urgent measures
are needed to reduce its use and understand the effects of these
particles on both ecosystems and the human body.
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