Overview
- Researchers at Concordia University synthesized more than 140 studies in a review published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials in late December 2025.
- People meeting daily water needs with single-use bottles may ingest about 90,000 additional particles each year compared with roughly 4,000 for those drinking only tap water.
- Across food and drinking water, the average person ingests an estimated 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles annually.
- Plastic bottles shed particles during manufacturing, storage, and transport, as well as through sunlight exposure and temperature fluctuations.
- The review notes potential health harms alongside unresolved long-term effects, highlights major analytical limitations, and calls for standardized methods and investment in water infrastructure to reduce reliance on single-use bottles.