Every week, between water and food, we ingest a quantity of plastic equivalent to a credit card. As if, bite after bite, we munched on our bank card between one meal and another. Obviously this is not what actually happens, but it is now proven that micro and nano plastics are now present in our daily lives, so much so that they are present in our food chain.
Plastic in food
As explained to the Dire Agency by Dr. Daniela Gaglio, scientific manager of the Metabolomics Infrastructure of the Institute of Bioimages and Molecular Physiology (Ibfm), of the National Research Council (Cnr), plastic fragments were found in drinks and foods that are consumed daily: from fish to meat, from salt to beer, from honey to sugar, up to fruit and vegetables, with apples and carrots found to be the most contaminated: “It is estimated that we can ingest from 0.1 to 5 grams per week of invisible pieces of plastic, a content almost equal to that of a credit card”. The team of researchers, directed by Professor Danilo Porro and coordinated by Daniela Gaglio, demonstrated experimentally that cells subjected to acute and chronic exposure to polystyrene particles show an alteration of metabolism and an increase in oxidative stress. With its research, the Cnr has therefore highlighted the potential effect that these micro and nanoparticles can have on health.
The effects on the organism
The intake of plastics produces effects on the human body, as underlined by the expert: “The study demonstrates that polystyrene micro- and nanoparticles absorbed by human colon cells induce changes in metabolism similar to those induced by the toxic agent azoxymethane: the latter is a carcinogenic and neurotoxic molecule that has been much studied precisely for its ability to induce colon cancer. What emerges from the study carried out using innovative metabolomics approaches (the science that studies metabolism and metabolic processes in detail) is that cells healthy human colon, subjected to both acute and chronic exposure to polystyrene particles, show an alteration of metabolism and an increase in oxidative stress. Finally, the study highlighted that plastic exposure induces metabolic alterations typically found in cancerous, indicating a potential action of micro and nano plastics as a colon cancer risk factor. To date, this is one of the few studies that provides information on what the effect of plastic could be on our bodies.”
Particles in water bottles
According to several studies conducted on tap, bottled and spring water, it emerged that microparticles are present in all the water sources analyzed. Analysis of tap water from 159 different sources showed that 81% of the samples contained microparticles smaller than 5 mm. Other studies conducted on 259 water bottles from 11 different brands and 27 different batches showed that 93% of the samples contained plastic microparticles. High levels of microplastics were found in mineral water bottled in 22 different multi-use plastic materials (compared to single-use plastic or cardboard containers), as well as in glass bottles.