Research Found That: More microplastics in babies’ faeces than in Adults.
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic debris in the environment resulting from the breakdown of larger plastic items. They are harmful to the environment because they do not biodegrade readily. They have been found in dust, food, fruit, bottled water, and, as a consequence, animal and human faeces, according to a recent study.
Human exposure to microplastics may pose a health risk, but little is known about the severity of the problem. A small study from the New York University School of Medicine found that babies had 10 to 20 times greater microplastic contents in their faeces than adults, particularly when it comes to PET (polythene terephthalate) microplastics. These are mostly used in the manufacture of things like textile fibres, water bottles, and mobile phone cases.
Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan, a professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s pediatrics department and the study’s main researcher addressed that ‘human exposure to microplastics is a health concern’. This is because some microplastics are accumulated within organs after digesting, and even enter the bloodstream by crossing cell membranes and causing inflammation, cell shutdown and metabolic issues.
Dr. Kannan also emphasized that efforts must be made to minimize children’s exposure as they surprisingly found higher levels of PET microplastics in infants’ faeces than in adults, and the exposure sources has been identified later on. “We discovered that babies’ mouthing behaviour, such as crawling on carpets and chewing on fabrics, as well as different children’s items, such as teethers, plastic toys, feeding bottles, and tools such as spoons… may all contribute to such exposure.” Dr. Kannan added. Therefore, he advocated that children’s products should be made free of plastics.
The study does not account for the accumulation of microplastics into organs following exposure and excretion of all microplastics ingested is unlikely in humans, which means the overall level could be higher. This suggests that current estimate of human exposure to microplastics are likely to be under representative.
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