Plastic fibers have been found in tap water all over the world. Here is the research.
We live on a planet of plastic: fibers of plastic were found intap water of all the world. Tests show that billions of people worldwide drink drinking water contaminated with plastic particles. Although there are still no certain studies, it is clear that they can attract pathogenic effects. In fact, what does it mean for our health?
As a global study by Orb Media, a non-profit organization specializing in investigative journalism, shows, the83% of the "drinking water" samples are contaminated with plasma.
On the other hand, with the amount of plastic we have been able to create in the last 60 years (over 1950 billion tons of plastic have been produced since 8.3) and what we have discharged into the marine environment, what could we expect different? If world production of plastic was 1950 million tons in 2 and 2015 million in 400, we will find plastic everywhere, there is no hope.
According to the new analysis, the United States has the highest contamination rate, with 94% of plastic fibers found in tap water sampled at sites such as Congress, the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Trump Tower in New York. Then Lebanon and India follow.
As for Europe, nations including the United Kingdom, Germany and France had the lowest contamination rate, but still attested to at 72%. And for every 500 ml, a half-liter bottle, we put an average of 1,9 plastic fibers in the body, while in the USA they are 4,8.
Even a small separate study in the Republic of Ireland released in June had found microplastic contamination. "We do not know what the impact on health is, so we should address it immediately and understand what the real risks are, while following a precautionary principle," explains Anne Marie Mahon of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, one of the authors of the survey.
And there are two main reasons for concern: particle size, first and foremost. Orb in his analysis only identified those larger than 2,5 microns, 2500 times larger than a nanometer, but the smaller ones are microscopic enough to penetrate cells and tissues. And once they penetrate effectively into a cell, they can also penetrate organs and "that would be worrying". More, microplastics can attract bacteria present in wastewater and, as Mahon stated, "studies have shown that there are more harmful pathogens on microplastics downstream of wastewater treatment plants."
An invasion, that of plastic, which now actually affects the entire water cycle, obviously including food production: for example, in a study in Germany, fibers and fragments were found in all 24 tested beer brands, as well as in honey and sugar and bottled water, which therefore we cannot see as a valid alternative. In Paris, in 2015, researchers discovered that microplastics fall out of the air and an estimated three tons of fibers in the city every year, also present in the home. So are common water filtering treatment systems enough? Of course not, experts say, considering that “there is no system that filters 100%. In terms of fibers, the diameter is 10 microns and it would be very unusual to find that level of filtration in our drinking water systems. "
How did microplastics end up in drinking water?
An almost ridiculous question, when you consider the rubbish we have reduced this Earth to. But scholars still want to go all the way: one source is certainly theatmosphere, with the synthetic fibers of clothes, carpets and shoes that are released into the air we breathe (80% of dryers in the US “vent” directly onto the balcony).
Then there are the washing machine drains, think that each washing cycle releases 700 thousand fibers into the environment, and the erosion of rain, but Mahon said that further work is needed to replicate the results, find the sources of contamination and evaluate the possible impacts on health.
On water pollution from plastic, read also:
- In less than 60 years, man has produced 8,3 billion tons of plastic
- By eating fish, we ingest 11 pieces of plastic a year!
- Swimming in plastic oceans (photos)
We are increasingly suffocating the ecosystems of plastic, in short, and what awaits us if we do not reverse the course is not at all rosy.
Germana Carillo
