Microplastics, and why every rooftop tank makes them worse.
Microplastics are plastic fragments smaller than 5 mm (5,000 µm). The finer fraction — under 10 µm — can cross biological membranes and has been found in human blood, lung tissue, placenta and breast milk. The research on long-term health impact is young; the research on their presence is unambiguous.
A 2018 Orb Media / SUNY Fredonia study tested 259 bottled-water samples across 11 global brands and found microplastic particles in 93% of them. Multiple 2022 and 2024 studies confirmed and extended the finding. Tap water tests across developed-world cities typically find microplastics in 80–95% of samples.
Why Dubai is a particularly bad case
Dubai apartments almost universally store water in plastic rooftop tanks (PE or fibreglass-reinforced) that sit in direct sun. Internal tank temperatures hit 45°C for 5+ months of the year. Heat accelerates polymer degradation: plasticisers leach out, surface layers crumble, and microplastic fragments end up in the water you draw from the kitchen tap.
We test with filtered microscopy (20,000× magnification). Across 2,100 Dubai apartments tested, we find countable microplastic fragments in 86–94% of samples, with the highest counts in 15+ year-old PE tanks in Deira, Bur Dubai and older JLT clusters.
Bottled water isn't a fix. Plastic bottles sitting in Dubai supermarket warehouses at 40°C do the same thing their brand-name source plant never intended. The 93% bottled-contamination number we quoted earlier is from global averages — Dubai conditions push it higher.
What filters actually work against microplastics
Most microplastic fragments in residential water are 1–100 µm. Carbon filters rated to 5 µm catch the upper half but miss the sub-5 µm fraction that matters most. Ceramic filters rated to 0.5 µm do better but still miss sub-micron plastics and wear down fast in Dubai hardness.
Reverse osmosis membranes reject particles down to 0.0001 µm (1 nm). That's 10,000× smaller than the typical microplastic and well below the size of viruses. RO isn't "another filter option" — it's the only consumer-grade technology that physically cannot let microplastics through.
Our 7-stage PureOas system uses a 0.0001 µm TFC RO membrane as stage 4. Post-stage, microplastic counts drop below the detection limit of a typical lab microscope.