Major health warning over water bottles

Bottles of plastic water have been found to contain up to hundreds of thousands of toxic microscopic plastic particles, new research has claimed.

Drinking water from a bottle could mean you are contaminating your body with tiny bits of plastic, which scientists fear can accumulate in your bloodstream or affect your vital organs.

Nanoplastics have already been linked to cancer, fertility problems and birth defects.

Dr Heather Lesley, a plastic particle specialist said: "We are very exposed as these studies typically show. But one of the things that we still have to wait for is the toxicological data.

"It's scientifically plausible that these particles when they reach our body, will cause inflammation.

"Inflammation is dangerous to our health. It is a prelude to a lot of chronic diseases.

"So what we have to be concerned about is if these particles do reside in our body. We showed a couple of years ago that microplastics and nanoplastics can be in our bloodstream.

"So we know that some of these particles that we're getting in are getting absorbed into our bodies where they can eventually cause problems."

Research is now underway across the world to assess the potentially harmful effects. The results showed that nanoparticles made up 90 per cent of these molecules, and 10 per cent were microplastics.

One common type found of nanoparticle was polyethylene terephthalate or PET.