People who drink bottled water on a daily basis ingest 90,000 microplastic particles every year

It was Sarah Sajedi Visit Phi Phi Island in Thailand, where I was amazed by the stunning landscape of the Andaman Sea. However, when she looked down at her feet, she saw that the beach was covered with white sand Plastic The debris, most of it was plastic bottles.

After many years in the business world as co-founder of an environmental software company, this experience inspired Sajedi to become a researcher. She has always had a passion for reducing waste, but she realized that the problem was consumption itself.

Thus, as a doctoral student at Concordia University in Canada, Sajdi Reviewed More than 140 Scientific papers To determine the effects of plastic bottles on the human body. It found that people ate an average of 39,000 to 52,000 Microplastic particles Every year from food, drinking water, and those who use bottled water on a daily basis ingest approximately 90,000 microplastic particles into their bodies.

“Drinking water from plastic bottles is fine in emergency situations, but it is not something that should be used in everyday life,” Sajedi He explains. “Even if there are no immediate effects on the human body, we need to understand the potential for chronic damage.”

Long-term effects remain a mystery

Microplastics are plastic particles ranging in size from 1 micrometer (1/1000 of a millimeter) to 5 mm. Nanoplastics are even smaller, less than one micrometer. These particles are invisible to the naked eye, but are constantly generated during bottle manufacturing, storage, transportation and decomposition.

Low-quality plastics, in particular, are susceptible to the release of microscopic debris due to sunlight, temperature changes, and physical manipulation. Unlike other plastic particles that enter the body through the food chain, those derived from plastic bottles are of concern because they are ingested directly with drinking water.

Once in the body, microplastics can enter the bloodstream and reach vital organs. This triggers a chronic inflammatory response and exposes cells to oxidative stress, which can lead to disturbances in the hormonal system, impaired reproductive function, and damage to the nervous system. It has also been linked to various types of cancer. On the other hand, the long-term effects on health are still unclear, due to the lack of widespread testing and standardized measurement methods.

There are several analytical methods for detecting micro- and nanoplastics, but each has its own advantages and weaknesses. Some methods can detect very small molecules but cannot determine their chemical composition, while other methods can analyze the structure but cannot determine the smallest molecules.