Peschak, Nat Geo Image Collection A plastic-free diet? Although whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea, they're still threatened by ingesting small bits of plastic. Like air pollution or harmful construction materials, those who have more exposure or preexisting conditions may be less able to tolerate plastic.Ī whale shark swims beside a plastic bag in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen. When researchers from Johns Hopkins looked at the impact of eating seafood contaminated with microplastics, they too found the accumulated plastic could damage the immune system and upset a gut's balance.Ĭox says scientists are scrambling to understand the dose at which microplastics start to have noticeable health effects. A build up of these toxins over time could impact the immune system.
Some are made with toxic chemicals like chlorine, while others pick up trace amounts of chemicals like lead found in the environment.
Different types of plastic have varying toxic properties. In 2017, a study out of King's College in London hypothesized that, over time, the cumulative effect of ingesting plastic could be toxic. Scientists still aren't quite sure about the amount of microplastics a body can tolerate or how much damage they do. So what happens to plastic once it's in your body? Does it enter your bloodstream? Does it sink into your gut? Or does it simply pass through without doing harm? One study published in 2018 in the journal Environmental Pollution concluded that people were more likely to ingest plastic through dust in their environment than by eating shellfish. “I think it's probably the case that more plastic is being added than we realize.” We haven't gotten to the layers and layers of plastic packaging,” Cox says. “A lot of the items we considered are the ones you're eating raw. Study author Kieran Cox expects that his conclusions are underestimates, and that it's likely people are consuming far more. People who meet their recommended water intake through tap water ingest an additional 4,000 plastic particles annually, while those who drink only bottled water ingest an additional 90,000, the study found.
The research team also looked at studies that reviewed the amount of microplastics in drinking water and air. Department of Agriculture.Ĭurrently, the existing research on microplastics in food represents only 15 percent of the calories consumed by the average person. To calculate how often one person might eat each of those items in a year, the study looked at recommendations made by the U.S. The study reviewed existing research on microplastics found in beer, salt, seafood, sugar, alcohol, and honey. How did they estimate this range?Ī microplastic particle is any piece of plastic smaller than five millimeters, but many are much smaller and only visible under a microscope. With added estimates of how much microplastic might be inhaled, that number is more than 74,000. Now, a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology says it's possible that humans may be consuming anywhere from 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles a year. Last October, microplastics were found in fecal samples from eight people participating in a pilot study to research how much humans might be inadvertently consuming plastic. They sit at the bottom of the sea, mix into beach sand, and blow in the wind. The tiny pieces of plastic scientists call microplastics are everywhere.
0 kommentar(er)
