Drinking from plastic bottles? Stop new, study says nanoplastics can harm your gut

New Delhi: Most people don’t think twice about grabbing a plastic bottle of water on a hot day. It’s quick, convenient, and feels harmless enough. But a new study suggests that these bottles may be shedding particles so small that we can’t see them, and those fragments might be able to interfere with the very microbes that help keep our gut healthy.

The research, published in Nanoscale Advances, didn’t rely on lab-made plastics or exaggerated conditions. Instead, scientists worked with real PET bottles—the same type used for water, soft drinks, and a whole range of everyday products. They scraped and degraded the bottles in ways that mimic what happens in normal use, producing nanoparticles rather than the larger microplastics we’re used to hearing about. These fragments are unbelievably