Eight Spanish cities find microplastics in tap water, is there a health risk?

This plastics they have already invaded almost all ecosystems of the world, in the natural environment due to poor waste management. “Plastics reach our beaches and pollute our rivers. Once in the environment, they degrade slowly, giving rise to smaller particles we call microplastics,” says UAM.

Microplastics are particles smaller than 5 millimeters that allow them to ‘move’ easily in nature. Scientists consider them “ubiquitous pollutants“, because they are located in all peripheral compartments.

For this study, the researchers Tap water Through steel filters connected to house connections at 24 points in 8 different locations in mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. They found microplastics in all of them, but very small quantities.

All particles found were spectroscopically measured and characterized, including not only microplastics but also others consisting of: natural materials with evidence of industrial processingsuch as dyed natural fibers from garments with potential source of additives like paints.

The main plastics detected were polyamides, polyesters and polyolefins, which are materials for general use in many common items and textile apparel.

Comparable values ​​with antibiotics

They have been in the water in total 570 different particles of possible anthropogenic origin. Of these, 84 particles (39 fragments, 6 films and 39 fibers) were positively identified as microplastics (synthetic polymers); 132 (7 trailers, 7 films and 118 fibers) are artificial material (not plastic) and the rest (360 particles) are natural materials.

Careful characterization of all the particles in the study provided an estimate of the mass of microplastics found in the processed samples, which averaged 45.5 nanograms per liter.

“This is a small value and is comparable to other pollutants that occur in surface waters and end up in mains water. antibiotics. Consuming 1.5 liters of water each day would take 40 years to ingest a milligram, which is likely the risk to human health is negligible. That’s good news,” the author elaborates.

“Now you don’t expect plastic to come out of the faucet, no matter how little. In our study, Despite the fact that mains water from Madrid, the most populated area, contains the most microplastics, a very similar concentration of plastic waste appeared in all samples.“, UAM says in a statement.

Most likely originmessy pollutionThe researchers conclude that drinking water treatment stations receive wastewater from treatment plants that reach the channels from which they drink, and these channels are generally located in the upstream.

” wastewater dischargesalthough they are correctly debugged according to the available parameters, they are a An important source for the discharge of microplastics into the environment‘, they add.

Plastic waste in human blood

“As a final reflection, it should be noted that the waste we throw in our homes is finally coming back This is where the importance of properly managing the waste we produce for them comes from”, concludes the authors.

Microplastics have already invaded almost the entire planetreaching the most unexpected areas, including the poles and ocean depths; For example, blood circulation of humans and animals, and until leaves of plants. They could have come from water, air, or even products like toothpaste, lipstick, or tattoo ink.

A little over a year ago, a group of Dutch scientists first discovered microplastics in human bloodHe warned that it may be reaching organs as well.

Half of the blood samples taken by the researchers from 22 volunteers had traces of PET plastic, which is commonly used to make beverage bottles, while more than a third contained polystyrene, which is used in disposable food containers and many other products.

As for the microplastics found in plant leaves, Slovak scientists were the authors of the find when studying organisms living in the small puddles that form in the axils of thistle leaves.

to create fragments and fibersThose defined as microplastics up to 2.4 millimeters long. How did they get there? Researchers believe that come from the atmosphere or what happened carried by snails from the ground or other plants.

Reference report: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135423004803