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Despite all the care mothers take to sterilize bottles at high temperatures, this process has harmful effects if the containers are made of plastic, according to a new study, published in the scientific journal “Nature Food” and published by “The Guardian “.
Currently, it is still recommended to boil the bottles in water before making the milk, but in the case of plastic containers, this process generates “millions of mycoplastics” and “billions of even smaller particles”. nanoplastics, “which are ingested by children, scientists have learned.
The now published study aims to be a “milestone” in order to better understand, on a scientific basis, the degree of exposure of the human body to small plastic particles, concluding that it is “much greater than ever thought.”
Scientists “stunned” by the amount of microplastics in the bottles
Irish professor John Boland from Trinity College Dublin, who participated in this study, noted: “We were completely astonished” to discover the amount of microplastics produced by baby bottles.
“A study by the World Health Organization, last year, estimated that adults would consume between 300 and 600 microplastics a day,” recalls the Irish academic, highlighting that the research that is now carried out on baby’s bottles allowed to determine “average values of the order of millions or millions”
The polypropylene bottles that were tested in the scope of this study are the most widely used, representing 82% of the world market, with glass containers being the best alternative, as recommended by scientists.
The effects of microplastics contamination on the environment and on food were already known, and the novelty of the study is above all to show that the process of preparing food in plastic containers, as in the case of baby milk , reaches a degree of exposure in the body that is “thousands of times higher”, according to the British newspaper.
The health impacts of exposure to plastic are still being studied, a topic that the authors of this research consider to be of “urgent need”, particularly in the case of children. There is the possibility that small plastic particles are simply expelled by the body, but they can also be absorbed by the blood system and transmitted to other organs, even affecting the immune system, so the study authors guarantee that they are mobilizing others scientists to develop research in this field.
“These findings represent an important milestone. The degree of exposure to microplastic they present can be alarming, but in real life the effects they have on the health of children require more research in this field,” says Philipp Schwabl of the University of Medicine. from Vienna, Austria (who was not involved in the study), cited by “The Guardian”.
Oliver Jones, a professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia (who was also not involved in the study), notes that the levels of exposure of babies to microplastics contained in bottles are estimated and not actually measured.
“We shouldn’t make parents feel bad about using plastic bottles,” says Oliver Jones, “However, this study illustrates that the problem of microplastics is bigger than we think and, in fact, we have to starting to study it is better. “
