Warnings over what happens if you don’t wash your water bottle often enough

ok.co.uk:

Reusable water bottles are beneficial in so many ways. Helping keep you hydrated, they also cut down on single-use plastic, and save you money every time you refill instead of buying a new bottle of water.

Plus, with all the chic stainless steel flasks and glass bottles on the market – not to mention sporty carrying straps – they’ve become something of a fashion accessory.Trying to hit the NHS-recommended eight glasses of water a day for adults is an excellent idea, of course, but did you know there’s one way your refillable bottle could potentially be detrimental to your health?

According to a study from WaterFilterGuru.com - Water Treatment Experts, reusable water bottles contain an average of 20.8m colony-forming units (CFUs) of bacteria, which equates to 40,000 times more than the microbes on a toilet seat.

So what might be the consequences if you continuously sip and refill without washing your bottle properly between uses? We asked health experts to talk through the risks… Bottling up bacteria “A common misconception when it comes to reusable water bottle hygiene is that as you’re typically filling it with pure water and it’s only coming into contact with your own mouth, there’s little need to clean it often,” says Dr Donald Grant, senior clinician at The Independent Pharmacy.