This means everyone buys water in plastic containers at the grocery store, all this plastic is PET-based, and PEG is always present in small quantities in that water (because water is slightly acidic, and acids disassociate the PET molecule).
I think "everyone buys water in plastic containers" is a bit of an overestimate.
Most generalizations that come from someone taking a short trip to another country are like this: Someone visits a foreign country, interacts with a couple dozen people in a small area, then projects that experience on to the entire country.
I think almost everyone does it when they’re young and they first start traveling. It’s not until you’ve gained more exposure to the size and diversity of the world that you realize you can’t draw conclusions about entire countries from a couple of experienced.
I drink a lot of tapwater (though usually as tea)
I used to drink bottled water, because it is sparkly. I like sparkling water much more than ordinary water.
But I got tired of carrying so many bottles
I bought a CO2 device that should make tapwater sparkling. But lacked fuzz and my mother donated it away. She donates all my stuff
>This means everyone buys water in plastic containers at the grocery store, all this plastic is PET-based, and PEG is always present in small quantities in that water (because water is slightly acidic, and acids disassociate the PET molecule).
My mother only buys glass bottles because of that.
That being said, the takeaway from this study shouldn't be that this is peculiar for the German population, it just happens that the Max Planck Institute for Polymers is located in Germany.
Where I'm from we drink tap water with no filter etc.