People who drink bottled water daily ingest an additional 90,000 microplastic particles each year

Sarah Sajedi was visiting the island of Phi Phi, Thailand, when she was dazzled by the magnificent landscapes of the Andaman Sea. However, when she looked down at her feet, she saw that the white sand beach was covered in plastic debris, most of which came from 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 always had a passion for reducing waste, but realized the problem was consumption itself.

So, as a doctoral student at Concordia University in Canada, Sajedi examined more than 140 scientific articles to determine the effects of plastic bottles on the human body. She found that people ingest on average between 39,000 and 52,000 microplastic particles per year from food and drinking water, and those who use bottled water daily ingest nearly 90,000 additional microplastic particles into their bodies.

“Drinking water from plastic bottles is good in an emergency, but it is not something that should be used in daily life,” Sajedi explain. “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 (1/1,000 of a millimeter) to 5 mm. Nanoplastics are even smaller, less than a micrometer. These particles are invisible to the naked eye, but are constantly generated during bottle manufacturing, storage, transportation and breakdown.

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

Once in the body, microscopic plastics can enter the bloodstream and reach vital organs. This triggers a chronic inflammatory response and exposes cells to oxidative stress, which can lead to disruptions 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, long-term health effects remain unclear, due to the lack of extensive 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 extremely small particles but cannot determine their chemical composition, while others can analyze composition but ignore smaller particles.