Expert’s warning: Don’t drink water from plastic bottles - it’s like eating a credit card every week
Infectious disease specialist Matteo Bassetti has shared a message about the consequences of drinking water from a non-glass bottle.
There’s been growing concern over the impact of drinking water from plastic bottles: Not only is it harmful to the planet, but it may also pose serious risks to our health.
Professor Matteo Bassetti, an infectious disease specialist at San Martino Hospital in Genoa, Italy, recently shared a striking insight: “We risk ingesting, in just one week, an amount of microplastics equivalent to the size of a credit card.”
“Particles can leach into the water”
Bassetti warns about the everyday habit of drinking water from plastic bottles and debunks a common myth about what’s actually inside them: “Do you know what kind of water is in most plastic bottles? In 64% of cases, it’s the same tap water you have at home - maybe passed through a small filter to make it taste better.”
But the real issue isn’t the water itself - it’s the packaging and how long the water sits in it. “How long does that water stay inside the plastic bottle?” he asks. The answer: “On average, between one and five years.”
And these bottles aren’t always stored in ideal conditions. “They’re often left outside in courtyards, exposed to the sun,” Bassetti explains. Under those conditions, the plastic heats up significantly, which can affect the water inside. “Plastic particles can leach into the water itself.”
That’s where the expert emphasizes the alarming possibility: each week, we could be consuming the equivalent of a credit card in microplastics.
What happens when you drink water from plastic bottles
Bassetti also outlines the health consequences of this exposure: “Microplastics cause inflammation,” he says, which can lead to chronic inflammatory conditions over time.
He acknowledges that sometimes plastic bottles are unavoidable - especially when we’re on the go. “But we don’t need to use plastic bottles every single day, even at home,” he adds. His advice? “Use tap water whenever possible. And if you have a choice, always go for glass. It’s unquestionably better than plastic and doesn’t release microparticles that, let’s remember, inflame the entire body.”
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