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Plastic Apocalypse: Dangerous Microplastics Now Turning Up In Human Stool
Plastic Apocalypse: Dangerous Microplastics Now Turning Up In Human Stool
Last month we revealed how high levels of dangerous microplastics had been detected in some of the most remote regions of the world. Now there are new reports that microplastics are turning up in human stool, a new study suggests.
The study, Detection of Various Microplastics in Human Stool: A Prospective Case Series, examined human stool from eight people around the world and found all had microplastics.
“This small prospective case series showed that various microplastics were present in human stool, and no sample was free of microplastics,” wrote the team of scientists, led by Dr. Philipp Schwabl of the Medical University of Vienna.
“Larger studies are needed to validate these findings. Moreover, research on the origins of microplastics ingested by humans, potential intestinal absorption, and effects on human health is urgently needed.”
Schwabl said volunteers came from Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Finland, and Austria. Their daily food intake was the likely entry point for microplastic exposure.
The study didn’t rule out that microplastic exposure could be coming from food wrappers and bottles. None of the volunteers were vegetarians, while six out of the eight had consumed ocean-going fish.
All stool samples were examined at the Environment Agency Austria for ten different types of plastics. As many as nine plastics were found in sample stool, ranging in size from 50 to 500 micrometers. Schwabl said the most common plastics were polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate.
On average, each stool sample contained about 20 microplastic particles per 10g of stool.
The study wasn’t entirely sure where the microplastics came from or how they were ingested, but because there were various types of plastics, Schwabl said the sources could be from food processing and packaging to seafood consumption.
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Plastic Apocalypse: Dangerous Microplastics Invade Alps To Artic, Found In Fresh Snow
Plastic Apocalypse: Dangerous Microplastics Invade Alps To Artic, Found In Fresh Snow
A new study has revealed that high levels of microplastics have been detected in some of the most remote regions of the world.
The discovery, published in the journal Science Advances, is the first international study on microplastics in snow, conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.
Melanie Bergmann, the lead scientist, and her team of researchers found microplastics from the Alps to the Arctic contained high levels of the plastic fragment, raises questions about the environmental and health implications of potential exposure to airborne plastics.
Watch: Farmers create natural straw intend to break plastic’s back
“I was really astonished concerning the high concentrations,” said co-author Gunnar Gerdts, a marine microbiologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute.
Bergmann explains that microplastics come from industrial economies where rubber and paints are used. The tiny fragments end up in the sea, where they’re broken down by waves and ultraviolet radiation, before absorbing into the atmosphere. From there, the plastic particles are captured from the air during cloud development, can drift across the Earth via jet streams. At some point, the particles act as a nucleus around supercooled droplets can condense, and travel to Earth as snow.
“Although there is a huge surge of research into the environmental impact of plastics, there is still so much that we do not know,” said Bergmann.
Bergmann noted how the scientific community was only in its infancy of examining the process of how microplastics get sucked up into the atmosphere then scattered around the world in some form of precipitation. She said, there’s an “urgent need for research on human and animal health effects focusing on airborne microplastics.”
Microplastics at ‘alarming levels’ in Canadian lakes and rivers
Microbeads just tip of plastic iceberg floating in Canadian waters
Tiny plastic pellets called microbeads have gotten a lot of attention as a major water pollutant, but less-discussed microplastics are equally concerning, according to new research being done in Canada.
“In recent years, they’ve been detected in a growing number of lakes and rivers worldwide. They’re everywhere, and often in alarming levels,” said Anthony Ricciardi, a professor at the McGill School of the Environment, who is working on a study about microplastics.
- Push to ban plastic microbeads from facial scrubs gains momentum
- Plastic microbeads: small bits with a big impact
Microplastics are small particles of plastic less than five millimetres in size that are often found in bodies of water near large urban populations. Microbeads, which are used in toothpastes, makeup and body cleansers, are one part of the broader category of microplastics.
Biologist Lisa Erdle points out a tiny fake leaf made of plastic hidden in her sample of sediment from Lake Ontario on July 15, 2015. Her team is searching for plastics smaller than 5 mm in diameter to study the level of microplastic pollution in Canadian fresh waters. (Micki Cowan/CBC)
Microbeads are “getting all the attention, but they’re only one component to this,” Ricciardi said. “As time goes on, people are going to realize the importance of the other pieces, too.”
A 2014 study of the U.S. Great Lakes by the 5 Gyres Institute found an average of 43,000 microplastic particles per square kilometre. Near cities, the number jumped to 466,000.
Dislodged from clothing in the wash
The plastic particles in the Great Lakes include microbeads, but also come from other sources, such as bits of polymer that detach from clothing when it is washed, as well as granules from industrial abrasives.
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