Plastic walks in the human digestive tract

Plastic food packaging is rigorously tested, but nobody wants it in the stomach.© momemories / adobestock
Plastic food packaging is rigorously tested, but nobody wants it in the stomach.© momemories / adobestock

Vienna. (is) That there is still chance or nightmare par excellence, it must first show: A research team of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) ) and the Vienna Medical University has for the first time discovered a microplastic in human armchair. This is the first time that microplastics are detected in humans, says Bettina Liebman, expert in microplastic badysis at UBA.

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than five millimeters. It is used as an additive in cosmetics, but it occurs mainly unintentionally by crushing, abrasion or decomposition of larger plastic parts in the environment and remains there for a long time.

Liebmann badyzes the amount of microplastic contained in the environmental samples. "In addition, we examined human tissues, blood or urine for pollutants, and found that no one had yet badyzed whether microplastics also enter the human body," she said. she told the "Wiener Zeitung". In a pilot study, the expert and Philipp Schwabl of the Gastroenterology Clinical Department of the Vienna Medical University discovered eight out of eight subjects. The results will be presented Tuesday at the UEG Congress of gastroenterology in Vienna.

Participants in the study were five women and three men aged 33 to 65, living in Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Russia, Japan and Austria. They kept a food journal for a week and then gave a stool sample. All subjects consumed food packaged in plastic and beverages from PET bottles. The majority of them consumed fish and seafood, but no one ate only vegetarians. On average, 20 microplastic particles per ten grams of stool were found. "In our laboratory we were able to detect nine types of plastic from 50 to 500 microns," says Liebmann. The most common were PP (polypropylene) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Ten of the most used plastics in the world have been badyzed by infrared spectroscopy. "Particles absorb infrared light and, as a result, they bend and expand, leaving visible traces," says Liebmann. The origin of plastic particles has not yet been determined. "When food is in close contact with plastic, particles can be rubbed off," explains the first author, Schwabl. Thus, it is likely that plastic particles in the body are bound to the package. "However, the fragments could also come from everyday objects, such as toothbrushes, cutting boards or hard plastic objects," says Liebmann.

Next question: health
Direct relationships between dietary behavior and exposure to microplastics could not be demonstrated due to the small number of subjects. "The effects of microplastic particles found on the human body, particularly on the digestive tract, can only be studied in the context of a larger scale study," Schwabl points out. Whether it is happy to excrete unnecessary plastic or that some ingredients are still deposited in the body, the question remains open.

In previous studies, the highest microplastic concentrations in the gastrointestinal tract and plastic particles had also been detected in animals in the blood, lymph, and even the liver. "Although there are indications that microplastics can damage the gastrointestinal tract by promoting inflammatory responses or by ingesting harmful contaminants, additional studies are needed to badess potential hazards," says Schwabl.

Global plastic production is 400 million tons per year. An American study has already demonstrated a sometimes considerable concentration of microplastic particles in drinking water from plastic bottles.