Although we do not realize it and it may be hard to believe, we eat and drink microplastics every day up to a total of five grams per week, the equivalent of the weight of a credit card, according to a study by the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni ).
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Plastic is not biodegradable and continues to break down until it is reduced to millimeter pieces that enter the food chain and, ultimately, our bodies.
These particles that enter the gastrointestinal tract through food and drink consist of micro and nanoplastics, which pose a particular health risk to people with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity or hepatitis.
This is stated in the study “To waste or not to waste: questioning the health risks of microplastics and nanoplastics with a focus on ingestion and carcinogenicity”, published in the journal Exposure & Health, which summarizes the latest known data on this issue .
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According to Lukas Kenner, a member of the study and a researcher at MedUni and the Vienna General Hospital, a healthy intestine is capable of coping with this risk, while people with chronic diseases or distress are “susceptible to the harmful effects” of these plastics. .
Micro and nanoparticles in the digestive system
The research, which focuses on the impact of micro and nanoparticles on the digestive system, also indicates that ingesting these plastics could activate mechanisms involved in inflammatory and immune responses and could even be behind the appearance of cancer.
Nanoplastics are defined as those less than 0.001 millimeters in size; microplastics, from 0.001 to five millimeters, which are still partially visible to the naked eye.
“In particular, nanoplastics are associated with biochemical processes that are crucially involved in the process by which normal cells transform into cancer cells,” the study explains.
These particles enter the food chain from food or drink consumption, but also from packaging waste.
In this sense, the researchers maintain that by drinking 1.5 to two liters of water a day from plastic bottles, some 90,000 particles of this material are ingested per year, while when doing so from tap water this figure decreases to 40,000.
Humans have introduced a massive amount of plastic into the atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic environments, making plastic debris so ubiquitous that it will even contribute to an identifiable fossil trail for generations to come.
In addition to the impact on ecosystems, the study focuses on the “completely unexplored” consequences for human health.
“More detailed research on how these plastics affect the human body is urgently needed: whether and how they can transform cells and induce carcinogenesis, particularly in the face of exponentially increasing production of non-degradable plastic,” the researchers conclude. EFEgreen
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