Drinking a cup of milk tea can result in trillions of plastic particles being consumed?

When you enjoy a cup of hot coffee or hot milk tea, have you ever noticed that the containers containing these hot drinks may pose a significant health risk to you?

Image: Unsplash

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently published their findings in the scientific journal Environmental Science and Technology. The study shows that everyday plastic products can release trillions of microplastic particles into the water.

The research team used food-grade nylon bags and products made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as samples to explore the sources and release of microplastics.

Plastic products mainly composed of these two components are very common in daily life, such as baking mats, plastic films lining disposable take-out coffee cups, etc.

Scientists have found that when these plastic products are exposed to hot water, they release trillions of nanoparticles per liter into the water. After placing a cup of 100°C water in an ordinary take-out coffee cup and letting it sit for 20 minutes, researchers were able to detect trillions of plastic nanoparticles per liter of water.

That is to say, every time you drink a 500 ml cup of hot drink, 500 billion plastic nanoparticles will enter your body.

Figure 丨 Illustration of NIST scientist's paper

"The main takeaway here is that microplastics are present in large quantities in our water, in the trillions per liter," said NIST chemist Christopher Zangmeister. "We can't say yet whether these microplastics have adverse health effects in people or animals, but there's no doubt they're everywhere."

What are microplastics? Microplastics refer to plastic particles with an average particle size of less than 5 mm, or even up to micrometer or nanometer size, which are formed by the decomposition of plastics.

Since Richard Thompson, a marine biologist at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom, formally proposed the concept of microplastics in 2004, people have continued to detect microplastics in daily necessities.

The report "Microplastics in Drinking Water" released by the World Health Organization pointed out that plastic pollutants exist in the ocean, sewage, fresh water, food, air and drinking water (including bottled water and tap water). Bottled water contains more plastic particles than tap water.

The fact is that each of us consumes microplastics every week, every day, and even every meal. In January 2021, researchers from Italy announced that microplastics were found in human placentas for the first time; in August of the same year, several scholars from the University of São Paulo in Brazil published a study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, which found that microplastics were present in human lung tissue obtained through autopsy. The experiment collected lung tissue samples from 20 non-smoking adult individuals, and polymer particles and fibers were observed in 13 of the samples. These pollutants are heterogeneous to the respiratory system after inhalation.

Photo: Victor Dangerman

In September 2021, multiple media outlets reported that a study recently published in the international journal Environmental Science and Technology by Nankai University and New York University showed that the number of plastic particles detected in infant feces was 13.8 times that of adults. The study believes that the microplastics detected in infant and adult feces mainly come from diet.

The Guardian reported in 2022 that scientists detected microplastic pollution in human blood for the first time. What the researchers are worried about is that experimental results show that microplastics can cause damage to human cells.

Albert Koelmans, an environmental scientist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, reported in March that according to a partial survey of microplastics in air, water, salt and seafood, children and adults may ingest tens to hundreds of thousands of microplastics every day. He and his team believe that in the worst case scenario, people may ingest a total amount of microplastics equivalent to the size of a credit card each year.

Picture: myhuazhan

Are microplastics harmful to the human body? Plastics and Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, jointly released by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), the University of Exeter, UPSTREAM and other institutions, emphasizes that microplastics that enter the human body directly through ingestion or inhalation may cause a variety of health effects, including inflammation, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, apoptosis and gangrene; and they are associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and stroke.

It is almost impossible to eliminate microplastics from modern life, but we can still take some measures to minimize the intake of microplastics. The Microplastics in Drinking Water report recommends that the government should establish a more complete sewage filtration system, and the use of tertiary treatment can reduce microplastic pollution in sewage by about 90%.

For individuals, to reduce the intake of microplastics, you can try to do the following:

1. Reduce the use of plastic products, or at least reduce the use of disposable plastic products.

2. When using plastic products, avoid using them at high temperatures. Studies on kitchen utensils have found that the amount of microplastics released depends largely on temperature.

3. Pay attention to plastic pollution and support actions to eliminate it. Marine plastic pollution affects the living environment of millions of species every year, and microplastics have entered our food chain. To avoid ingesting microplastics, we must pay attention to plastic pollution and care about the earth's ecological environment.

-End-

Edit: Get rid of plastic