When I was in the Air Force and flying back and forth to the desert during Desert Storm and thereabouts, we would stay in the tent city adjacent to the airfield, a temporary base that came with some of the comforts of home (a ticket that allowed the purchase of 3 beers a day in the club tent, for example), but not many. To ensure that the troops had enough water to stay hydrated, pallets of bottled water were placed at almost every intersection in the camp, hundreds of thousands of bottles virtually boiling in the desert sun that could be taken back to the tent and placed in front of the air conditioners to cool. It was important to stay hydrated.

So, there’s a new study just out that has found the level of plastic that is actually contained in bottled water is far higher than had been known. New analysis shows that each liter of bottled water can contain as many as 240,000 nanoplastic particles that, once ingested, are small enough to transit cell walls and make their way to every part of your body, via the blood stream. One of the things that makes the numbers even higher is if the plastic bottles are damaged and exposed to high heat. I think about those water bottles in the desert and wonder if the military is still doing that.

With all we know, we are still reminded that knowing is only part of the cure.