We eat and drink microplastics every day, even if we don’t realize it and it’s hard to believe. According to a study by the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni), up to a total of five grams per week is equivalent to the weight of a credit card.
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, which enter the gastrointestinal tract through food and drink, nanoplasticswhich pose a particular health risk for people with chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity or hepatitis.
This is expressed in the study titled “To waste or not to waste: Questioning the health risks of microplastics and nanoplastics ingestion and carcinogenicity” published in the journal Exposure & Health, which summarizes the latest known data on this subject.
According to Lukas Kenner, a study member and researcher at MedUni and Vienna General Hospital, a healthy gut can cope with this risk, while people with chronic diseases or distress are “sensitive to the harmful effects” of these plastics. . . .
Micro and nanoparticles in the digestive system
Research focusing on the effect of micro and micro factors, nanoparticles In the digestive system, it also indicates that ingestion of these plastics can activate mechanisms involved in inflammation and immune responses and may even be behind the appearance of cancer.
Nanoplastics are defined as those less than 0.001 millimeters in size; most microplasticsBetween 0.001 and five millimeters, these are still partially visible to the naked eye.
“Especially, nanoplastics They are associated with biochemical processes that play an important role in the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells,” explains the study.
These particles enter the food chain as nutrients or beverage consumptionbut also with packaging waste.
In this sense, researchers have found that drinking 1.5 to two liters of water per day from consumed plastic bottles 90,000 This figure decreases every year when particles of that material are made from tap water. 40,000.
“Humans have introduced enormous amounts of plastic into the atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic environments and have made plastic debris so common that they will even contribute to an identifiable fossil trace for the future.”
In addition to the impact on ecosystems, the study focuses on “completely unexplored” consequences for human health.
“More detailed studies are urgently needed on how these plastics affect the human body: how they can transform cells and whether and how they can trigger carcinogens, particularly in the face of the exponentially increasing production of non-degradable plastics,” the researchers said.