Indonesia: Ministry to follow up study on microplastics in drinking water

The Jakarta Post 17 Mar 18;

The Health Ministry plans to follow up on a study by State University of New York and Orb Media Network that found microplastics in bottled drinking water.

Health Ministry secretary-general Untung Suseno Sutarjo said on Friday that the ministry would conduct a thorough study on the subject. “We’re going to coordinate with the Food and Drug Agency,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com. Untung said the study would try to ascertain the source of microplastics, whether it is the water or the bottles.

The ministry would also study the effects of the microplastics on humans amid the absence of comprehensive research on microplastics and humans.

On Thursday, news broke about the study, which took 259 samples of drinking water from 11 local and international brands. It found that samples from all the brands contained microplastics. (evi)