"Tu botella de agua: un inesperado criadero de bacterias y hongos" | Salud | EL PAÍS English

Nos animan constantemente a beber más agua. Este consejo proviene de médicos y es promovido por celebridades influyentes que aparecen en redes sociales luciendo sus coloridas botellas metálicas, que se han convertido en verdaderos accesorios de moda. El consumo de agua ya no se limita a la supervivencia, ahora se relaciona con una piel más suave, una mejor digestión y articulaciones más flexibles.

In parallel to the advice to drink more water come the warnings against plastic consumption for the health of the planet. In Spain, where 55 million containers are sold every day and only 36% are recycled, the obvious solution is a reusable bottle. But while these are a more environmentally friendly option, they can become a reservoir of bacteria and fungi when they are not cleaned properly and, with a bit of bad luck, could end up being a health risk.

This has been determined by a series of recent studies which looked at the accumulation of microorganisms in reusable water bottles. One of them, carried out by the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), collected 90 bottles from university students in the U.S. and found that 70% of the containers exceeded the recommended limit of microorganism colonies for drinking water in some countries.