Bottle-fed babies can ingest ‘millions’ of microplastics every day, Irish researchers find

BOTTLE-FEEDED BABIES can ingest more than a million pieces of microplastics each day, new research has shown, highlighting the abundance of plastics in our food products.

There is growing evidence that humans consume large amounts of tiny particles, which are formed when larger pieces of plastic break, but very little is known about the health consequences.

Researchers in Ireland looked at the release rate of microplastics in 10 types of baby bottles or accessories made from polypropylene, the most widely used plastic for food packaging.

They followed the official guidelines of the World Health Organization on sterilization and conditions of preparation of the formula.

During a 21-day test period, the team found that the bottles released between 1.3 and 16.2 million plastic microparticles per liter.

They then used these data to model the potential global exposure of infants to microplastics from bottle feeding, based on national average breastfeeding rates.

They estimated that the average bottle-fed baby could ingest 1.6 million plastic microparticles every day for the first 12 months of his life.

The authors of the research, published in the journal Nature Food, said that sterilization and exposure to high water temperatures had the greatest effect on the release of microplastics, going from 0.6 million particles per liter on average to 25 ° C at 55 million / liter at 95 ° C.

The authors told AFP that the goal of the research was “not to worry parents” about the potential health risks of bottle microplastics.

“We have communicated, as strongly as we can, that we do not know the potential health risks of ingesting microplastics by infants,” said the Trinity College Dublin team.

“This is an area of ​​research that we are now actively pursuing.”

‘Urgent need for study’

The authors noted that it was in developed countries that babies likely ingested the most plastic – 2.3 million particles a day in North America and 2.6 million in Europe.

This was attributed to relatively low breastfeeding rates in wealthier countries.

They said the levels could easily be lowered by taking a few extra steps, such as rinsing the bottles with cold sterile water and preparing formula milk in a non-plastic container before filling the bottle.

Fay Couceiro, principal investigator in biogeochemistry at the University of Portsmouth, said today’s research highlighted the “urgency of studies on the impacts of microplastics on human health.”

He said it was important not to be “alarmist” when it came to bottle feeding, which many parents prefer for various reasons.

“The risks of not sterilizing bottles or using hot water are well known and very real, and these known risks of disease must outweigh those of microplastic production until their health risks are understood,” said Couceiro, who was not involved. in the study.

© AFP 2020