If you're a fan of plastic water bottles we've got some bad news for you.

Before you reach for that plastic water bottle rolling around at the bottom of your bag, we need to tell you some seriously gross news. That thing is riddled with germs. And not just run-of-the-mill everyday atmosphere germs, but the kind of bacteria that will make you seriously sick.

According to TreadmillReviews.net, a group of UK-based researchers recently lab-tested a disposable water bottle (that, let’s be honest, are not really disposable at all because we all use way more than once) that had been used for a full week by an athlete.

Inside and outside of the bottle they found multiple bacterias thriving, 60 per cent of which were capable of making the average water bottle owner sick. One bacteria, in particular, boasted 900,000 colony forming units per square centimetre.

And to put that into perspective for you, that's substantially more bacteria than you're likely to find on a toilet seat. So that's disgusting.

In addition to the germ factor, there are also the potentially harmful chemicals within the plastic itself, something scientists have long said we should be wary of.

"Certain chemicals found in plastic bottles can have effects on every system in our bodies," Dr Marilyn Glenville told Good Housekeeping in 2016.

"They can affect ovulation, and increase our risk of hormonally driven problems like PCOS, endometriosis and breast cancer, among other things."

Sorry friends, but it's officially time to step away from the plastic water bottle.