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A significant global study conducted in the United States reveals that 40 percent of people worldwide are losing confidence in tap water due to concerns over its safety. This alarming finding calls for immediate action from governments around the world, according to Bluewater, a leading global innovator in water purification and beverage solutions. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, involved 148,585 adults across 141 countries and was carried out by researchers from two U.S. institutions, Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“This shocking revelation underlines the need for governments and water authorities worldwide to urgently tackle the contamination of our drinking water by toxic chemicals, microplastics, and other pollution,” said Bluewater founder and CEO Bengt Rittri. The Swedish ecopreneur added that the growing public distrust in tap water is driving the demand for packaged water, which has a profoundly negative impact on the planet’s health, environment, and inhabitants.
The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health reports that over 600 billion single-use plastic bottles are produced each year, with the majority ending up in landfills and oceans rather than being recycled. These bottles release toxic chemicals and degrade into micro and nanoplastic particles. A groundbreaking 2023 report titled Hidden Hazards: The Chemical Footprint of a Plastic Bottle concluded that the widespread use of PET plastics “may prolong the climate crisis, threaten human health, and promote environmental racism.”
Mr Rittri emphasised that the new study highlights the difficulty consumers face in assessing the dangers and safety of their water supply, as many contaminants are invisible, odourless, and tasteless. He expressed astonishment that 39% of those surveyed in the United States believed they faced significant harm from drinking tap water in the short term.
“When we launched Bluewater in 2013, it was with a planet plan rather than a traditional business vision, with the aim to develop technologies and solutions that would end the need for single-use plastic bottles,” Mr Rittri said. He added that Bluewater remains committed to this mission, continuously developing solutions that enable consumers and businesses to transform tap water into purified water that is safer and healthier to drink.
In 2024 alone, Bluewater has introduced several new products, including an innovative kitchen station for homes and restaurants that removes up to 99.7 percent of contaminants such as toxic PFAS chemicals and microplastics from tap water while adding essential minerals for better health and taste.
Bluewater has also rolled out a new range of public dispensers across Europe, known as Bluewater Flow, designed for use in public spaces such as gyms, offices, hospitals, and schools. Other public dispensing solutions have proven highly successful at major sporting events and other large gatherings aiming to improve their sustainability efforts. These include golf, sailing, and running events such as The Open Championship, The Ocean Race, America’s Cup, the Cape Town Marathon, governmental summits like COP 27 and 28, and numerous business conferences.
“We understand that the only way to tackle the plastic bottle menace is to restore public confidence in tap water, which will take substantial time, effort and money… or to increase awareness that solutions exist – like those provided by Bluewater that enable consumers to purify their tap water at point of use,” Mr Rittri said.
