How toxic is plastic on human health and environment ? A dangerous material to be ignored

We are surrounded by plastic. Much of our furniture, clothing, electronics, and food packaging are made from it.

Over the past decades, natural materials used in manufacturing, such as paper, glass, and cotton, have been replaced by plastic. We know that this ubiquitous use of plastics has led to extreme plastic pollution in our environment. However, plastics aren’t just an environmental issue.

Plastic, one of the most preferred materials in today's industrial world is posing serious threat to environment and consumer's health in many direct and indirect ways.

Exposure to harmful chemicals during manufacturing, leaching in the stored food items while using plastic packages or chewing of plastic teethers and toys by children are linked with severe adverse health outcomes such as cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption, developmental and reproductive effects etc.

Promotion of plastics substitutes and safe disposal of plastic waste requires urgent and definitive action to take care of this potential health hazard in future.

Plastics may affect our health via three pathways:

1. We eat, drink and breathe microplastics every day. These small plastic particles may harm our health once they have entered our bodies.

1. When plastics and microplastics end up in the environment, they attract micro-organisms such as harmful bacteria (pathogens).

1. If microplastics containing these pathogens enter our bodies, they may increase the risk of infection. PATHOGENS & MICROPLASTICSMicroplastics
    

   are plastic particles that are 5 millimetres or less in size. Some forms of plastic are even a million times smaller than a millimetre: these are nanoplastics. Microplastics have been found everywhere in our environment, from the deepest ocean trenches to both poles, and on top of the Himalayas.

    

   However, microplastics can also be found much closer to home. As microplastics are released from our sofas, carpets, curtains, and other synthetic textiles, they are omnipresent in virtually every household. Microplastics have also been found in many consumer products such as seafood, honey, beer, water, salt, fruits and vegetables.

    

   Due to the contamination of our indoor and outdoor environments by plastics, we eat, drink and breathe plastics every day.

    

   Plastics are not biodegradable and bacteria known to cause human diseases tend to grow on the plastic surface.

    

   This raises the pressing question: once in our bodies, do microplastics make us sick? To find answers, ZonMw, a Dutch organisation that finances health-related research, initiated a unique programme – Microplastics & Health. With these research projects, the Netherlands is positioning itself as one of the global leaders in this field.

    

    

   How many microplastics do you ingest per day?

   We are not sure yet. Scientists are presented with a huge challenge, as current analytical methods can’t yet detect the smallest microplastics in food or human samples (like blood, for example).

    

   As a result, there is still a limited understanding of the extent of our exposure to microplastics and no understanding of the potential presence of microplastics in our bloodstream and other parts of our bodies. Without understanding exposure, scientists cannot determine risk.

    

   Based on data currently available, scientists attempted to estimate the annual intake of microplastics by an average American citizen in 2019. Because only 15% of the food consumed could be assessed, the researchers believe this is an underestimation.

    

   This study designated bottled water as one of the highest sources of plastic particle intake; bottled water contains about 100 microplastics per litre on average. More research has since been conducted.

    

   For example, plastic teabags and baby bottles have been found to release millions of micro and billions of nanoplastics into tea and baby formula.

    

   These studies suggest that our exposure has gravely been underestimated, but more research will need to be done to fully understand how much plastic we ingest and how much remains in our bodies.

   Clearly, there is still a lot we do not know. Based on the available scientific information, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that microplastics in drinking water pose no risk to human health.

    

   The Plastic Health Coalition argues that there are simply too many knowledge gaps to assess the health risks of microplastics. Current available data on human exposure is incomplete and has, due to a lack of analytical methods, not taken into account the smallest and most hazardous plastic particles.

    

   Moreover, scientific research into the potentially harmful effects of microplastics on humans is still in its infancy worldwide. New scientific research is urgently needed.