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Microplastics in food and drinks damage our livers and affect metabolism, scientists say
Studies suggest a person may ingest 40,000 to 10 million plastic particles a year – causing glucose intolerance, injury to organs like liver
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“Waiter, there are fragments of synthetic polymers in my soup” does not have quite the ring to it as the old joke about the unappetising fly.
Research presented at an American Society for Nutrition conference in Orlando, Florida, that ended this week suggests that food and drink are much more likely to harbour harmful plastics than toxic bugs.
“Microscopic plastic particles found in food and beverages may affect glucose metabolism and harm organs such as the liver,” according to scientists at the University of California, Davis, who warned that despite “ubiquitous exposure” to microplastics and nanoplastics, the health implications have yet not been “fully elucidated”.
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“Our observations that oral ingestion of polystyrene nanoplastics contributes to glucose intolerance and signs of liver injury, confirm and extend what has been recently reported on the effects of nanoplastics in animal models,” the team warned, after comparing mice exposed to plastics to others that were not exposed.
“With the growing concern around micro- and nanoplastic exposure, we wanted to evaluate the impact of this exposure on health,” said Amy Parkhurst of the University of California Davis.
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