Here are some bitter news that you need to sip.
Microplastics cannot be avoided, hide everything from the food you eat and the water you drink to the clothes you wear and the cosmetics you use.
Now a new study shows that one daily habit can flood your body tens of thousands of these small plastic particles every year – and your health can pay the price.
Microplasty is less than 5 millimeters of plastic particles that distance themselves from larger plastic items. Microgen – Stock.adobe.com
Researchers at Concordia University in Canada analyzed more than 140 scientific articles and found that the average person swallowed between 39,000 and 52,000 microplastic particles per year.
But if you drink regularly from one of the plastic water bottles you use, you can swallow the extra 90,000 of these terrible polymers each year compared to those who hold the tap water.
The microplastic effect occurs when the particles break from the inner surface of the bottle and wash it into the water, especially when the bottle is squeezed or heated.
“Drinking water from plastic bottles is great in a critical situation, but it is not something that should be used in everyday life,” said Sarah Sajedi, an environmental expert and main author of the study.
Drinking regularly from one of the plastic water bottles used can significantly increase your annual microplastic consumption. Oporty786 – Stock.adobe.com
It can be a difficult message. According to industrial data, 2024 Water in the bottles remained the best of America’s best drinks, ninth in a row, broadcasting a carbonated garden and fruit drinks.
The staggering 16.2 billion gallons were consumed, with a 2% jump from 2023. This is enough to fill in more than 24,000 Olympic -sized pools.
“Education is the most important action we can take,” Sajedi said. “People need to understand that the problem is not acute toxicity – it is chronic toxicity.”
Scientists are still seeking to understand exactly how microplasty affects human health, but one thing is clear: they not only pass through the body.
These rags, often smaller than rice grain, can enter the bloodstream and accumulate in vital organs and tissues, including the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, testicles and placenta.
Studies have even found that microplastics are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier, says threshold experts who are “very difficult to damage”.
Sarah Sajedi and Chunjiang and served as the main authors of the University of Concordia. University of Concordia
Inside the body, studies show that these particles can cause chronic inflammation, damage to cells, disrupt hormones, and interfere with subtle bacterial balance in the intestine.
Although long -term effects are not fully understood, early research on animal and human cells linked the microplastic effects of cancer, infertility, heart disease, lung conditions and other serious health risks.
Sajedi and her team are now calling for standardized tests to better evaluate the microplastic quantity and stronger policy of products such as one -to -use water bottles to limit plastic contamination in bottles.
January In the bottles, the Water Association noted the growing concern, noting that water in bottles is only one of thousands of products sold in plastic packaging.
“In water bottles, the industry is committed to providing consumers to the safest and highest healthy hydration products,” the group said. “Industry supports additional research on this important issue.”