​1L plastic water bottle contains around 240,000 plastic bits

Bottled Water Contains Large Amounts , of Plastic Particles, Researchers Say. Columbia University and Rutgers University researchers tested three brands of bottled water, NPR reports. 240,000 plastic fragments were detected in a standard liter of bottled water. Of those detected fragments, 10% were microplastics and 90% were nanoplastics. While microplastics have previously been detected in humans' lungs, excrement, blood, placentas and more. nanoplastics could be more dangerous, NPR reports. That's because "the smaller it goes, the easier for it to be misidentified as the natural component of the cell," . according to Wei Min, a professor at Columbia University and study co-author. Although researchers previously knew that bottled water contained nanoplastics, . "if you can't quantify them or can't make a visual of them, it's hard to believe that they're actually there," study co-author and Rutgers University professor Phoebe Stapleton says. Researchers hope that their work will shed light on just how much plastic humans regularly consume and the effects it may cause. The study was published in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' on Jan. 8, NPR reports.