Are You Drinking on Plastics?
Plastic components in both beer and milk
IF plastics were discovered five thousand years ago, it would still be around us today.
But it was invented only a hundred years ago, and while it changed the world, it itself didn’t change at all. Plastics are literally everywhere now; from the deepest ocean beds to the miniature cells of the human body.
The first fully synthetic plastic was bakelite and was invented in 1907 by Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland. It was a magical material. Plastics since its invention exploded with such an innumerable range of applications in almost every sector that our lives routinely interact with it today. With its increasing use, the impact on the environment and health became more apparent. When mankind assessed the actual repercussions of using plastics, it was devastatingly late.
Plastics are polymerized or condensed products formed from natural materials like cellulose, coal and oils, and a wide range of chemicals, which determine their type, strength, and quality. The product thus formed is highly stable, resistant, and durable, but also non-biodegradable and a burden to nature.
Onetime use and unrecyclable plastic waste are already hazardous to the environment and ecosystem. Marine animals repeatedly have been reported to either ingest larger chunks of plastics as food or get entangled in them endlessly to even starve them to death. But a much greater threat is underway that might directly interfere with humans beings, animals, and all types of ecosystems.
Microplastics
Items made from plastic polymers break down into smaller fragments of irregular sizes called microplastics. The US National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration put microplastics as “fragments of plastic of less than 5 mm in diameter”. Fragmentation occurs by either mechanical, chemical, or photodegradation of the larger plastic items and is termed secondary microplastics. Primary microplastics are those which are intentionally manufactured in micro-sizes for e.g. used as exfoliating scrubbers and hand cleansers.
Secondary microplastics are the major ocean pollutants, where the smallest micro-debris detected measured 1.6 μm in diameter. A majority of these microplastics result from abrasion of tires of vehicles, textiles, city dust, weathering of abrasion of plastic made materials, personal use products, and during manufacture and recycling of plastics.
When these plastic particles are fragmented, they get broken down into smaller sizes but with larger surface areas. As a result, they readily get absorbed in the environment and serve higher chances of being ingested by living organisms. Adding to it, their ability to develop negligible amounts of surface electric charges makes them more likely to interact with biological entities like membranes and biomolecules of living systems.
Micro and nano plastics (formed by further disintegration of microplastics) thus have a greater ability to absorb toxins, chemicals, and microorganisms from the environment and carry them inside our bodies. Plastic particles themselves contain toxic chemicals like Bisphenol A (BPA), PVC, PS oligomers, and over 1000 other chemicals, most of which are still unknown.
Reports
- A study published in 2004 spotted a range of plastic-made materials degraded into secondary microplastics with diameters of about 20μm and the debris floated in oceans as a layer of “plastic soup.”
- A report from IUCN in 2017 claims one-third of “plastic soup” in the world’s oceans is of microplastics. A Denmark-based study estimated about 5500–14000 tonnes of microplastics are released into the environment every year.
- Another study in 2017 assessed more than a hundred tap water samples from regions of the USA and other continents to determine plastic component contamination. The research concluded water from the USA, Lebanon, and India contained highest number of microplastics per liter of tap water.
- Studies have already exemplified microplastic particles in the air, which signals air-borne contamination into foods and ingestion by direct inhalation. Seafood, sugars, beers, and other foods stuff are widely contaminated with bits of plastic.
- Recently in 2020 researchers discovered plastic bottles used to feed baby milk shed 10 million bits of plastics per liter of fluid. In the US, milk formula for babies in plastic bottles is more common for most females sway from breastfeeding.
- In 2021, Raman spectroscopy pointed to microplastics in six human placentas from women who experienced healthy pregnancies. They traced the origins of the plastics to be of paints, man-made coatings, adhesives, plasters, finger paints, and other plastic products of daily use.
- A 2014 report detected plastic component Bisphenol A (BPA), Phthalates, PVC components in the milk of lactating mothers.
Shockingly, plastics are everywhere.
The effects of the microplastic particles entering the body are not clearly understood. However, the dangers that these inert components pose cannot be undermined. Their interaction with the cellular components and the ability to carry toxins and microorganisms inside the tissues can cause localized infections or incite widespread dysfunctions. They could already be the reason for some of our health issues.
Plastic pollution in the upcoming decades might grow into a greater challenge to humanity than any other form of hazard. While the use of plastics seems inevitable, it’s time that we seriously look for options and immediately switch to such as biodegradable, recyclable, and natural forms of fibers instead.
Reducing plastic use by a single person, at a single time does makes a difference to the world and living beings in it.
Sources:
Rhodes, Christopher J. “Plastic pollution and potential solutions.” Science progress 101.3 (2018): 207–260.
Thompson, Richard C., et al. “Lost at sea: where is all the plastic?.” Science(Washington) 304.5672 (2004): 838.
Boucher, Julien, and Damien Friot. Primary microplastics in the oceans: a global evaluation of sources. Vol. 10. Gland, Switzerland: Iucn, 2017.
Lassen, Carsten, et al. “Microplastics-Occurrence, effects and sources of.” Significance 2 (2012): 2.
https://orbmedia.org/invisibles-final-report
Li, Dunzhu, et al. “Microplastic release from the degradation of polypropylene feeding bottles during infant formula preparation.” Nature Food 1.11 (2020): 746–754.
Ragusa, Antonio, et al. “Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta.” Environment international 146 (2021): 106274.
Mendonca, K., et al. “Bisphenol A concentrations in maternal breast milk and infant urine.” International archives of occupational and environmental health 87.1 (2014): 13–20.
