Scientists have begun to expose a global horror of horrors: the pollution from microplastics. The tiny pieces of plastic are showing up in unlikely places, including Arctic ice. Particles drift through the air, so we breathe, eat and drink microplastics.
The consequences for human health are potentially enormous. The problem is that little is known about how microplastics affect the human body. This makes it difficult for the World Health Organization, which issued one yesterday detailed report on the status of microplastics in drinking water.
The conclusion: Because research is still limited and is now just beginning, there is no indication that the consumption of microplastics is a threat to human health.
Bruce Gordon, who helped write the report as WHO coordinator, says: “We know from data that we consume microplastics and this causes concern for consumers. The main message is to reassure drinking water consumers around the world since our assessment of the risk is that it is low."
The report urges the scientific community to further study the potential impact of microplastics on human health, and directly. And he calls on people to resist the scourge of plastic pollution, because humans have poisoned with microplastics even the most remote areas of this planet. They rotate deep in the ocean currents and appear in the seafood we eat. The permeability of tiny plastic objects is frightening and there is no way to stop them.
Humans produce an astonishing amount of plastic, about 400 millions tons in 2015, and production is expected to double by 2025. An estimated 8 million tons enter the ocean each year, but researchers assume this represents only 1%. The rest have seemingly disappeared.
Microplastics enter drinking water in a number of ways. Some of them are transported into the atmosphere as dust and land in fresh water sources, such as reservoirs, etc. But even plastic garbage that enters water sources breaks down over time into smaller pieces and eventually into microparticles. The textiles productsuch as elastic gym pants (yoga, etc.) release microplastic fibers when washed.
According to the report, drinking water companies, of course, deal with contamination before it is distributed to customers, which removes most of the microplastics. But he also warns that in the developing world people don't always have access to this kind of explanationwork νερού. Επίσης, ο εξοπλισμός επεξεργασίας που είναι κατασκευασμένος από πλαστικό μπορεί να συνεισφέρει μικροσωματίδια στην παροχή νερού.
At this early stage of research, the number of studies is small and researchers have not yet resolved the methodologies to follow. The nine separate studies reported in the WHO report reflect a scattered survey to date. Some examined bottled water, others spring water, etc. Some filtered water samples at the microparticle level, while others looked for particles 100 times larger than them. Some determine the types of plastics they found, others did not. Not surprisingly, the level of contamination they report ranges from zero to thousands of particles per liter. The conclusion is that the findings are almost impossible to compare.
The WHO report notes that most microplastic particles seem to pass safely through the human intestine. But we need more research on how particle size affects their passage, or whether gut tissue can absorb smaller ones.
This is a very unknown field for microplastics, and the WHO emphasizes that when it comes to drinking water, we should be concerned.
Meanwhile, people around the world will continue to drink and eat and breathe microplastics, while scientists are still trying to better understand the potential effects on human health. We now live on a plastic planet and we must prepare for the report.
