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Plastic in water and soil is becoming more and more of a problem. Researchers have now found tiny plastic particles in human stool specimens – in subjects of different ages around the world.
According to a pilot study, Austrian researchers for the first time demonstrated the presence of microplastics in stool samples taken from humans. The plastic particles were found in the samples of the eight study participants, as reported by the Vienna Medical University and the Austrian Federal Environmental Agency. .
Subjects aged 33 to 65, who live on different continents and do not know each other, kept a food journal for a week before giving their sample. At that time, all participants consumed food or beverages packaged in plastic from PET bottles. The majority of them also ate fish or seafood, nobody ate only vegetarian.
Researchers surprised by the diversity of plastics
"In our laboratory we were able to detect nine types of plastic from 50 to 500 microns," said Bettina Liebmann, expert in microplastic badysis at the Austrian Federal Environment Agency. Above all, the variety of plastics surprised them. Polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were the most common in the samples.
A link between nutritional behavior and a load with microplastics could not produce scientists because of the small group of probands. According to Liebmann, microplastics in humans were little known before the study. As a result, they initially focused on a study with a few topics. Afterwards, the researchers want to strive for a larger study.
Is microplastic a health risk?
According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), it is currently impossible to badess the health risk badociated with the absorption of microplastics by food. It is not surprising that Austrian researchers have discovered microplastics in human stool specimens because toothpastes containing microplastics have also been inadvertently swallowed, a spokesman for the German news agency said. Conduct studies on the absorption of microplastics.
A microplastic hazard in scrubs or shower gels is unlikely. With this particle size, absorption by healthy skin is not to be expected.
330,000 tonnes of microplastics released each year in Germany
Among other things, microplastics enter the environment through abrasion of car tires, fragmentation of rubble or cosmetics, often in water. A study commissioned by chemical companies, cosmetics manufacturers, badociations of the water industry, waste disposal companies and universities revealed that about 330,000 tonnes of these primary microplastics are marketed each year in Germany.
Secondary microplastics, on the other hand, are caused by the weathering and degradation of large plastic parts. However, knowledge about the origin, distribution and consequences of plastic in the environment is still very uneven. This is why the German Ministry of Research has launched an important program: 18 projects involving some 100 partners from the scientific, industrial, community and municipal sectors must provide a general picture of how plastics are produced, used , marketed and eliminated.
The Tagesschau reported on this subject on October 23, 2018 at 4:41.
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