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Overall, PET concentrations were 10 times higher in infants than in adults, while polycarbonate levels were more consistent between the two groups. Researchers found smaller amounts of both polymers in meconium, suggesting babies are born with plastics already in their system. This echoes previous studies that found microplastics in human placentas and meconium.
What all of this means for human health and, more urgently, the health of infants, scientists are now rushing to find out. Different varieties of plastic can contain at least 10,000 different chemicals, a quarter of which are of concern to humans, according to a recent study by researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. These additives are used for all kinds of plastic manufacturing purposes, such as providing flexibility, additional strength, or protection against UV bombardment, which degrades the material. Microplastics can contain heavy metals like lead, but they also tend to accumulate heavy metals and other pollutants as they tumble into the environment. They also easily develop a microbial community of viruses, bacteria, and fungi, many of which are human pathogens.
Of particular concern is a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors, or EDCs. The infamous plastic ingredient bisphenol A, or BPA, is one such EDC that has been linked to various cancers.
“We should be concerned because EDCs in microplastics have been shown to be linked to several adverse outcomes in human and animal studies,” says Jodi Flaws, reproductive toxicologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , who led a 2020 Endocrine Society study on plastics. (She was not involved in this new research.) “Some of the microplastics contain chemicals that can interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system.”
Infants are particularly vulnerable to endocrine disruptors because their body’s development depends on a healthy endocrine system. “I firmly believe that these chemicals affect the early stages of life,” says Kannan. “It’s a vulnerable time.
This new research adds to a growing body of evidence that babies are highly exposed to microplastics. “This is a very interesting article with very disturbing numbers,” said Deonie Allen, a microplastics researcher at the University of Strathclyde, who was not involved in the study. “We need to look at everything a child is exposed to, not just their bottles and toys. “
Since infants shed microplastics in their stool, this means that the intestine could absorb some of the particles, just as it would absorb nutrients from food. This is called translocation: particularly small particles can pass through the intestinal wall and end up in other organs, including the brain. Researchers actually demonstrated this in carp by feeding them plastic particles, which moved through the gut and made their way to the head, where they caused brain damage that manifested itself. by behavioral problems: compared to control fish, individuals with plastic particles in the brain were less active and ate more slowly.
But it was done with very high concentrations of particles, and in an entirely different species. While scientists know that EDCs are bad news, they don’t yet know what level of exposure to microplastics it would take to cause problems in the human body. “We need a lot more studies to confirm the doses and types of chemicals in microplastics that cause side effects,” says Flaws.
In the meantime, microplastics researchers say you can limit children’s contact with the particles. Do not prepare infant formula with hot water in a plastic bottle: use a glass bottle and transfer it to the plastic bottle after the liquid reaches room temperature. Vacuum and sweep to keep floors free of microfibers. Avoid plastic packaging and containers whenever possible. Microplastics have contaminated every aspect of our lives, so while you will never get rid of them, you can at least reduce your family’s exposure.
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