Microplastics in Glass Bottles and Forever Chemicals in Tap Water
While Climate Change Affects The Taste of G&T
Just when you thought you were successfully avoiding drinking microplastics, along comes a survey throwing that theory into chaos.
A French food-safety team (ANSES) tested everyday beverages - water, soft drinks, lemonade, iced tea, beer and wine - and counted the plastic particles floating inside. The devastating results were that glass-bottled soft drinks averaged about 100 microplastic bits per litre, which is five to 50 times higher than what they found in plastic bottles or cans.
It was the colourful paint on the metal caps of fizzy glass-bottled drinks that caused the most contamination. Tiny scratches build up as the caps bang around in storage, and those flakes end up in your drink. When researchers matched the shape, colour and polymer of the particles in the drink to the paint on the caps, it was a perfect match.
If you prefer bottled water or wine, the results were a little better. Flat and sparkling water in glass showed just 4.5 particles per litre, and wine was similarly low, even with the same cap style. Scientists are trying to figure out why the numbers swing so wildly between drinks.
Meanwhile, in eastern France, residents across 11 communes around Saint‑Louis have been told not to drink tap water, in what’s now France’s largest-ever water ban related to PFAS contamination.
PFAS are “forever chemicals” - they don’t break down easily, so build up in soil, water and, yes, humans too.
In Saint-Louis, decades of PFAS-containing firefighting foam used at the airport has seeped into local groundwater. Around 60,000 people are affected, with extra concern for infants, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and people with weakened immune systems.
Environmental campaigners, led by long-time local activist Wollenschneider, are now pushing to hold the airport responsible and enforce a polluter‑pays clean‑up of around €20 million. This case looks set to become a legal landmark in France and maybe even across Europe.
From water to alcohol, and the taste of Gin & Tonic is apparently changing, due to climate change.
Juniper berries supply those piney, citrusy, slightly floral notes many of us recognise (not me, I’ve never cared for the drink). But it turns out the berries are surprisingly sensitive to the weather.
A team at Heriot-Watt University found that berries picked after a soggy growing season carry roughly 12% fewer volatile flavour compounds than berries from a drier year - that’s the kind of language that makes premium brands very nervous, as they build their reputation on a consistent style.