Hacker News Reader

Full quote: "Mason's team was able to identify specific plastics over 100 microns (0.10 mm) in size but not smaller particles. According to experts contacted by CBC News, there is a chance the Nile Red dye is adhering to another unknown substance other than plastic."

Key point: they're unsure about the smaller particles, but they're sure about the bigger ones. There is microplastics in the samples.

Not only that, but we have no idea what the "safe levels" are. They say it's only roughly double that of tap water, which doesn't seem alarming to me.

That's not too surprising, given that this problem of consuming plastics is a relatively new one. There likely hasn't been enough time to fully understand the implications of eating tiny plastic particles. I doubt that they are all expelled from your body with other wastes given that this isn't something your body naturally deals with. More research is needed.

What else could it be? I'm going to assume it wasn't found in the baseline test and it is something that shouldn't be there.

There isn't a whole lot to "manufacturing" water.