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| Amazing discovery! Large amounts of microplastics were detected in both newborn "meconium" and 1-year-old baby's feces |
The concept of microplastics was proposed as early as 2004 by Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom when he published an article in "Science". Subsequently, due to its widespread presence in the marine environment and various definite and uncertain hazards to organisms, it has received widespread attention from all walks of life.
Since then, more and more studies have found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet, the deepest Mariana Trench on the earth, which should have been untouched, have also been contaminated by materials discarded by us. Microplastics have been widely present in the environment, and have already entered human life and integrated into the food chain.
Previously, a review published in "Environmental Health Perspectives" analyzed more than 50 studies from 2014 to 2020. It comprehensively investigated the level of microplastic pollution in marine organisms around the world and found that molluscs on the coast of Asia are the most polluted.
A study released by the New Zealand National Agency also showed that in fish sampled in the waters around New Zealand, not only microplastics were found in the fish's internal organs, but also microplastics were found in muscle tissues.
Therefore, it is not surprising that there are microplastics in the human body. However, how much microplastics do we eat?
Recently, in a pilot study published in "Environmental Science & Technology Letters", researchers from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering of Nankai University and the New York University School of Medicine in the United States brought amazing discoveries. Can be spared. They found that compared with adults living in the same area, the concentration of microplastics in the internal organs of babies was higher.
For a long time, plastics have been considered inert substances. After being ingested into the human body, they will pass through the gastrointestinal tract and be excreted through the biliary tract. However, it may not be as harmless as we once thought. Recent studies have shown that microplastics smaller than 10μm can pass through the cell membrane and enter the circulatory system, and have a negative impact on cell function.
In this study, the researchers evaluated two common exposures to microplastics. One is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used to make food packaging and clothing, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in toys and bottles. Carbonate (PC).
The researchers collected stool samples from 6 1-year-old babies and 10 adults in New York City, as well as meconium from 3 newborns, and analyzed these samples by mass spectrometry.
They found that every stool sample contained at least one type of plastic, and there were significant differences in the patterns of the two types of microplastics in the stools of infants and adults. Specifically, in 6 infant stool samples, the concentration ranges of PET and PC were 5700-83000ng/g and 49-2100ng/g, respectively. Among the three meconium samples, the PET detected in two samples was 12000 and 3200 ng/g, and the PC was 110 ng/g in the other sample. Of the 10 adult stool samples, 8 contained PET in the concentration range of 2200–16000 ng/g, and all samples contained PC in the range of 37–620 ng/g.
On average, the PET content in baby feces is more than 10 times that of adults. The microplastics detected in the feces of infants and adults are thought to come mainly from diet.
The researchers said that although the sample size is too small to determine the cause of this huge difference, there are many possibilities. For example, plastic tableware for babies is considered safer for babies, because they are more difficult to break, so they are less likely to produce sharp fragments like glass and ceramics; there are also plastic molar products designed for babies and not necessarily for chewing. The designed plastic toy was eventually bitten by the baby. As we all know, one-year-old babies often bite on plastic products and clothes.
In addition, studies have shown that infant formula formulated in PP bottles will release millions of microplastics, and many processed baby foods are also packaged in plastic containers, which constitutes another source of exposure for one-year-old babies.
Last year, a new study published in Nature Food found that formula milk powder releases high levels of microplastics (MP) from baby bottles during the brewing process. Specifically, when formulating formula milk using polypropylene bottles, on average, babies around the world are exposed to 1 million plastic particles every day. The study also shows that there is a strong correlation between temperature and the release of microplastics, for example, hotter liquids (liquid or water used to sterilize plastic bottles) will cause more microplastics to be released.
Furthermore, textiles are also a source of PET microplastics. Babies often chew and suck on cloth. Therefore, microplastics in textiles are also a problem.
In short, the results of the study indicate that this phenomenon requires further investigation, especially considering that any impact on infant health may be much more serious.
The researchers said that these data provide baseline evidence for the exposure dose of microplastics in infants and adults, and support the need for further studies of larger sample sizes to confirm and expand this finding.
Reference materials:
1.Occurrence of Polyethylene Terephthalate and Polycarbonate Microplastics in Infant and Adult Feces
2.Microplastic release from the degradation of polypropylene feeding bottles during infant formula preparation
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