Fast-growing evidence of multiple health threats to human health and wellbeing from the widespread use of plastic bottles demands urgent action by worldwide governments, says Bluewater, one of the world’s leading innovators of water purification and healthy beverage solutions. The company says new research by Austrian scientists concluding that plastic bottles may be linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and dementia is only the tip of the iceberg.
“An increasing range of studies point to a wave of health issues being linked to contaminants from microplastics and chemical toxins in the wake of the 600 billion or so plastic bottles manufactured every year,” says Swedish ecopreneur Bengt Rittri, founder and CEO of Bluewater. Noting most plastic bottles end up in landfills or the planet’s oceans and rivers where they release contaminants, he said manufacturers should be held accountable for any resulting eco damage and health issues.
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“As a father I was shocked by a study published just weeks ago in The Lancet medical journal saying that ‘environmental chemicals’ – such as microplastics – may also be contributing to cancer rates among men and women born in 1990 being two to three times higher than those born in 1955,” Mr. Rittri said. The study was led by the American Cancer Society using data from more than 23 million people who had been diagnosed with cancer or had died from it.
Meanwhile, a study by researchers at the Danube Private University Austria (DPU) revealed concerning links between plastic water bottle usage and elevated blood pressure (also known as hypertension), which WHO says causes one in eight deaths worldwide and is the leading risk factor for heart and kidney disease. Focusing on eight young and healthy adults, comprising five females and three males, the DPU study found drinking bottled water raised blood pressure due to microplastics entering the bloodstream.
Microplastics have been found throughout human bodies, including in human brains, lungs, blood, and testicules. According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a research team at Columbia University in a 2023 study found that a liter of bottled water, on average, included about 240,000 tiny pieces of plastic.
Bluewater says the numerous studies investigating the health impact of single-use plastic bottles underscore the urgent need for consumers to take their safety into their own hands and ditch plastic bottles for alternatives such as sustainable stainless-steel bottles or glass bottles protected in a shatter-proofing silicon sleeve.
Mr. Rittri said Bluewater was founded in 2013 with a planet plan rather than a traditional business plan with the ambition to end the need and use of throwaway plastic bottles. By enabling people to access purified water at home, work, and play free of all known contaminants, Bluewater water dispensers remove the need for plastic bottles of water and their carbon-intensive production and transportation. Bluewater Flow dispensers allow users to hydrate with purified water free of all known toxic contaminants from microplastics to chemicals and germs in supermarkets, gyms, schools and many other public spaces.
“Who knows, we may also be able to convince the International Olympic Committee that there are excellent alternatives to handing out vast quantities of single-use plastic bottles to athletes as they did at the recent splendid games in Paris,” Bengt Rittri said.
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