How to Remove Microplastics from Your Drinking Water
Microplastics in drinking water show potential health and environmental risks, resulting in a major concern for aquatic life and other living beings. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles usually found in water sources and in the human body. They’re small in size, less than 5 millimeters in length, and come from the larger plastic pieces and plastic debris that degrade into micro-sized plastics. It can lead to many health problems in our lives, including oxidative stress, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, respiratory disorders like pleural effusion and lung cancer, and damage to organs like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, reproductive issues like gonadal damage, decreased fertility, and more. Considering the health risks of microplastics, there is a need to know and learn about removing microplastic impurities from drinking water. Let’s further learn about the microplastics in drinking water, health risks, and the use of reverse osmosis water filters to eliminate the health risks effectively.
What Are Microplastics?
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “Microplastics encompass a wide range of materials composed of different substances, with different densities, chemical compositions, shapes and sizes. There is no scientifically-agreed definition of microplastics, although they are frequently defined as plastic particles <5 mm in length. However, this is a rather arbitrary definition and is of limited value in the context of drinking water since those particles at the upper end of the size range are unlikely to be found in treated drinking water. A subset of microplastics <1 μm in length is often referred to as nanoplastics.”
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that originate from the breakdown of larger plastic items, debris, and plastic microbeads. Plastics are typically non-biodegradable; instead of decomposing, they fragment into increasingly smaller pieces over time. These microplastics, typically less than 5 millimeters in length, are often invisible to the naked eye, allowing them to remain undetected in water sources. Microplastics pose health risks because they tend to accumulate in the human body and are not easily excreted.
Health Risks of Microplastics in Drinking Water
In potable water, water resources, and even fresh water, a wide variety of particle shapes, fragments, and fibers have been found, with polymer particles like polyethylene terephthalate and polypropylene as the major contamination of microplastics in drinking water.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) published an article that explains that “microplastic particle counts ranged from around 0 to 1000 particles/L/L. Only nine studies were identified that measured microplastics in drinking water; these studies reported particle counts in individual samples from 0 to 10,000 particles/L and mean values from 10-3 to 1000 particles/L.”
Microplastic contamination in drinking water poses significant health concerns that must be addressed to safeguard human well-being. Potential hazards typically fall into three categories: physical particles, chemical pollutants, and microbial pathogens. The physical particles may exert harmful effects on the human body depending on their size, surface area, shape, and other physicochemical properties after ingestion. Hydrophobic chemicals, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), can also be absorbed onto the surface of plastic particles, increasing their potential toxicity. Finally, biofilm-associated pathogens—including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Naegleria fowleri, Legionella spp., and non-tuberculous Mycobacterium spp.—can colonize microplastics and proliferate in water systems, further compounding the health risk.
It may result in toxic effects on health like oxidative stress, organ dysfunction, DNA damage, immune response, exaggerated inflammatory response, metabolic disorder, neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicity. Oxidative stress damages cells and tissues, leading to fibrosis and potentially contributing to carcinogenesis. In some cases, microplastics may cause organ-specific toxicity affecting the gastrointestinal tract, liver, nervous system, and reproductive system. The harmful effects of microplastics on distant human organs may increase the risk of lung diseases, immune and neurodegenerative disorders, renal impairment, and unregulated activation of osteoclasts—the cells responsible for bone resorption. In some cases, microplastics may also cross the placental barrier, potentially affecting embryonic development.
How to Test for Microplastics in Your Water
There is currently no test available for the average consumer to detect microplastic contamination in drinking water at home. However, laboratory testing is possible by sending in a water sample, though this process is often expensive and time-consuming. Studies have shown that microplastic contamination is increasingly common, so most tests are likely to confirm the presence of microplastics to some extent. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use a filtration system designed to remove microplastics from drinking water in order to promote better health and overall well-being.
Best Water Filtration Methods for Removing Microplastics
Microplastics in drinking water appear to be less than 5 millimeters, making it difficult to filter out with traditional filtration methods. The best method to remove microplastics from drinking water is Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration. Reverse osmosis water filters are designed to filter out most water contaminants down to 0.0001 microns to dispense pure water. Most RO filters use additional stages of filtration, like sediment filtration, purification, sterilization, and enhancement, to remove virtually all contaminants, including microplastics. These RO systems use sediment filters, activated or catalytic carbon filters, semi-permeable RO membranes, contaminant-specific media, sterilization and taste enhancement, or remineralization systems to amplify the purity and taste of drinking water.
Another alternative method is water distillation, which requires water boiling, the collection of steam from the top of the distiller, and cooling it down back to liquid form for further use. It’s a slow process and can’t be used for large volumes of water filtration for drinking water, as it loses the water's taste during the distillation process. It is primarily used for laboratory tests, hospital uses, and similar applications to prevent test results and procedure quality due to contamination.
Conclusion
Pure drinking water is essential for the health and well-being of all living beings. In recent years, the presence of contaminants and impurities in water has increased significantly. Among these, microplastics in drinking water have emerged as a serious concern due to their harmful and potentially toxic effects on human health. Microplastics are extremely small in size, making them nearly impossible to detect with the naked eye. These microplastics are less than 5 millimeters in size, that’s why advanced water filtration is needed to remove these toxic microparticles from drinking water. Reverse osmosis water filters or RO systems are the preferred method to remove water impurities like microplastics in order to enjoy healthy and pure drinking water at home. RO system uses multi-stage water filtration technology to filter out most contaminants. Some RO systems use the remineralization system to enhance the water taste after successfully removing the toxic contaminants.