Letters to the Editor: Nanoplastics in bottled water? Time to ensure safe tap water for all
To the editor: The alarming amount of nanoplastics in bottled water adds yet another reason why we need to invest in safe drinking water systems and stop the reliance on plastic water bottles.
Californians know the threats of water bottling companies to local water supplies. For example, in 2017 BlueTriton (formerly Nestlé Waters North America) was found to be extracting 25 times more water than it had a right to from the state, including in the San Bernardino National Forest. The state told its private equity owners to stop using that water last September, but the company is currently in court fighting that decision.
Bottled water companies often pay next to nothing to extract local water, put it in plastic bottles, ship it across the world and sell it for profit. In the San Bernardino case, the company was paying just $524 to extract around 30 million gallons annually, even during the drought.
The bottled water industry aims to privatize what should be protected as a human right: access to clean water. We must get off fossil-fueled plastics, and Congress should pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability Act of 2023 so every community has access to safe drinking water at the tap.
Andrea Vega, Los Angeles
The writer is Southern California senior organizer for Food & Water Watch.
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To the editor: Thank you for your lucid article about tiny nanoplastics in some bottled water brands. It’s shameful that we don’t require such plastics to be proven safe before marketed. The burden of proof is instead shifted onto the public.
Now that we know the presence of these particles may pose a threat to public health, there’s an urgent need to multitask— chew and walk at the same time. Production and distribution of products that put nanoplastics into the environment must be banned. We must require the use of environmentally friendly, sustainable alternatives.
Waiting for further studies should not be an excuse to avoid meaningful action to mitigate the harm being done to us and the biosphere. We need to codify nationally and internationally the crime of ecocide and the rights of nature and the Earth.
Robert Leyland Monefeldt, Los Angeles
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To the editor: It’s usually the typos that stop me in my tracks. In your article on nanoplastics, however, it was a wonderfully out-of-place phrase that made me do a double-take.
Reading “now that they’ve grossed us out about bottled water” as part of otherwise staid reporting on hard science seemed quite inappropriate, and I am very much here for it.
Thank you!
KJ Ward, Los Angeles
