Plastic in water and food: “Like eating a credit card a week”
The alarm raised by Italian researchers: between food and water, every week we ingest the equivalent of a plastic card. “Chronic exposure – the experts explain – is a risk factor for colon cancer “Every week, between water and food, we ingest an amount of plastic equivalent to a credit card. As if, bite after bite, we were munching on our bank card between meals. 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 Agenzia Dire by Dr. Daniela Gaglio, scientific director of the Metabolomics Infrastructure of the Institute of Bioimaging and Molecular Physiology (IBFM), of the National Research Council (CNR), fragments of plastic have been 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 being 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, have experimentally demonstrated that cells subjected to acute and chronic exposure to polystyrene particles show an alteration of metabolism and an increase in oxidative stress. The CNR with its research has therefore highlighted the potential effect that these micro and nanoparticles can have on health.
The effects on the body
The intake of plastics produces effects on the human body, as underlined by the expert: “The study shows that the micro and nanoparticles of polystyrene absorbed by the cells of the human colon induce changes in metabolism similar to those induced by the toxic agent azoxymethane: the latter is a carcinogenic and neurotoxic molecule that has been studied extensively for its ability to induce colon cancer. What emerges from the study carried out using innovative approaches in metabolomics (the science that studies metabolism and metabolic processes in detail), is that healthy cells of the 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 exposure to plastic induces metabolic alterations typically found in cancerous formations, indicating a potential action of micro and nano plastics as a risk factor for colon cancer. To date, this is one of the few studies that provides information on what the effect of plastic might be inside our bodies.”
Particles in water bottles
According to several studies conducted on tap, bottled and spring water, it has been found 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.
source https://www.today.it/scienze/plastica-cibo-acqua.html