Plastic particles found in bottled water

"Probably about 5 bottles a day at least and sometimes even more than that during the summer of course," said Harris.

Researchers at the State University of New York at Fredonia had already found plastics in tap water, but they have found twice as much in bottled water. They tested eleven popular brands and found tiny particles called microplastics in 93% of them.

Your bottled water is probably contaminated with tiny plastic particles, health experts say

"Like a period at the end of a sentence or a grain of salt, that kind of size," said Dr. Sherri Mason. ""On average in every liter of bottle we tested, we found 325 pieces of microplastics within each liter of bottled water."

Coca-Cola's Dasani bottles ranged from 2 to 335 particles. Aquafina by Pepsi ranged from 2 to 12,095 particles. Nestle's Pure Life ranged from 6 to more than 10,000 particles. Dr. Mason said the type of plastic chemicals they found are the same used to manufacture bottles and caps, including industrial lubricants in 4% of the samples.

"The plastic is getting in the water through the actual industrial process of bottling the water," said Dr. Mason.

In response, Coca Cola said "We stand by the safety of our products, and welcome continued study of plastics in our environment."

Pepsi said, "The science of microplastics is an emerging field that needs more scientific analysis."

Nestle sent us a video that they made to defend their water. In the video, Nestle said, "To produce Nestle Pure Life, Nestles water uses very high performing filters able to remove even smaller than one micron."

Nestle also criticized Dr. Mason's methodology and said that they have state of the art equipment to identify every particle collected.

"So we can clearly differentiate microplastic from other compounds like minerals naturally present in the water," the Nestle video said.

"Exactly what biological materials are they expecting to be in their clean, pure, pristine water?" asked Dr. Mason.

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In a statement, Nestle said that they have detected trace amounts of microplastic. Their numbers range from 0 to 12. While scientists debate the testing and numbers, consumers told us that they just want to know if drinking plastic is harmful?

"I think we're so early in the process of identifying something that's there, and we really can't say that it causes harm by any means, but I think it is an important first step," said Toxicologist Dr. Michael Lynch of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Mason said she is glad that her research is getting others to look into the issue.

"I'm really excited to see the World Health Organization has come out and called for a human impact study as a result of our work," Mason said.

The International Bottled Water Association also sent us a statement that said, "Consumers can remain confident in the safety and quality of bottled water products."