KENYA – Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has admitted to the concentration of microplastics in Dasani bottled water sourced from a variety of countries, including Kenya.

A survey conducted by a team of scientists based at the State University of New York and sponsored by non-profit media organisation Orb, analysed bottled water sourced from Kenya, Indonesia, India, the US, Lebanon, Thailand, China, Mexico, Brazil and e-commerce platform Amazon.

The results of the study, released on Thursday, showed that Dasani was among 93 percent of the world’s famous bottled water products contaminated by tiny pieces of plastic.

The concentration of microplastics in Dasani water sourced in Kenya topped 335 plastic pieces for every litre while samples of Dasani water bought from Amazon had a minimum and maximum concentration of 85 and 303 plastic pieces per litre, respectively.

In response to the damning study Coca Cola told the BBC that it had some of the most stringent quality standards in the industry and used a “multi-step filtration process”.

The firm, however, acknowledged that microplastics “appear to be ubiquitous and therefore may be found at minute levels even in highly treated products”.

Currently, there is no evidence supporting the theory that ingesting small pieces of plastic is harmful to people but scientists are concerned by increasing plastic pollution and say more studies have to be taken on the effect on human beings and the ecosystem.

African News Agency