Giving Compass' Take: 

• WHO is launching a review of the findings of a study that discovered a majority of water bottles contain plastic particles inside the bottles and in the drinking water. 

• Some criticized the methodology of the study. Should more research be done?

• There are other problems with drinking water around the U.S. which represents a public health crisis and inequity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a review into the potential risks of plastic in drinking water after a new analysis of some of the world’s most popular bottled water brands found that more than 90% contained tiny pieces of plastic. A previous study also found high levels of microplastics in tap water.

In the new study, analysis of 259 bottles from 19 locations in nine countries across 11 different brands found an average of 325 plastic particles for every liter of water being sold.

In one bottle of Nestlé Pure Life, concentrations were as high as 10,000 plastic pieces per litre of water. Of the 259 bottles tested, only 17 were free of plastics, according to the study.

Scientists based at the State University of New York in Fredonia were commissioned by journalism project Orb Media to analyze the bottled water.

The scientists wrote they had “found roughly twice as many plastic particles within bottled water” compared with their previous study of tap water.

Read more about the microplastics found in water by Graham Readfearn at The Guardian