International Treaty Negotiators Discuss Economics While Scientists Raise Concerns About Human Health
Every year, around 400 million metric tons of plastic waste ends up in landfills and oceans or strewn somewhere around the globe. Now, a new but growing body of research is finding evidence that very tiny pieces of plastics—microplastics—are finding their ways into the bodies of humans, including newborns and infants.
Plastic trash breaks down into microplastic particles (smaller than 5mm in length). Scientists have now discovered these flakes and particles in breast milk, blood [See The Earth & I, Aug 2022], lung tissue, and other organs. They are even found in infant feces.
With global annual plastic production expected to increase to around 590 million metric tons by 2050—an increase of over 30% compared with 2025—the United Nations put forward a legally binding agreement in 2022 to deal with the problem.
Still, rather than curbing the worldwide use of plastics, much of their attention seems focused on implementing a “circular economy” in which excess or unneeded plastics are eliminated, products are kept at their optimal use for as long as possible, and nature systems, such as forests or farmland, are regenerated.
A drawback of this circular economy approach, which features market caps and recycling, is that it does not appear to address concerns regarding the direct impacts of microplastics on the health of humans, especially that of the unborn, infants, and children.
"Health is not even mentioned in the treaty to date," said non-profit EarthDay.org (EDO), referring to the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) held in November in Nairobi.
EDO has released a new report, Babies vs. Plastics, exploring the dangers of microplastics, especially for children.
EDO reviewed over 100 scientific papers to better understand the global prevalence of microplastics and the potential harm they can cause to children. “What we discovered shocked even us,” the organization stated.
“[P]lastic has so many ingredients and combinations of ingredients, and it is associated with so many health issues, [that] it is hard for the public to understand the scale of the issue.”
“The big takeout is that plastic has so many ingredients and combinations of ingredients, and it is associated with so many health issues, [that] it is hard for the public to understand the scale of the issue,” Aidan Charron, director of the End Plastic Pollution initiative at EDO, told The Earth & I. “Tobacco is easy to fathom; if you smoke cigarettes, you will stand a good chance of getting lung cancer. Plastics are worse,” Charron stated.
There is evidence that the public finds the issue of microplastics concerning. But this is an unexplored area—published studies on public attitudes about plastics are “extremely scarce,” said a 2019 article in Resources, Conservation and Recycling, a journal published by Elsevier.
Discovering Microplastic Ingestion
Scientists have found a correlation between specific exposure to plastic chemicals and microplastics in some populations, especially islanders and fishing communities.
“Microplastics may act as vectors that transport toxic chemicals and bacterial pathogens into tissues and cells. Toxic chemicals added to plastics can disrupt endocrine function and increase risk for premature births, neurodevelopmental disorders, infertility, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancers,” said the August 2023 newsletter of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, citing one of its studies on microplastics.
Along with other non-governmental organizations, EDO wants to see health concerns related to plastics to play a pivotal role in the treaty. The organization believes "the most powerful way to enact change is parent power, informing readers of the risks."
In its November report, EDO sets out what scientists know about the presence of microplastics in fetuses, infants, and children. It explores the connection between microplastics—unknowingly eaten or inhaled—and multiple illnesses and issues. None of the microplastics are specifically related to one particular illness, Charron noted.
"The big solution is less plastics," Charron said. "We need to stop using them in everything, and we need to make sure babies are protected from overexposure."
Searching for Impacts on Human Health
Since the existence of microplastics in humans has only recently been confirmed, scientists are now working to answer questions about their health impacts.
Scientists are assessing hundreds of potential associations between microplastics and the onset/presence of illnesses and conditions.
The human brain is the chief operating system and the most complex organ. Yet, the study of how microplastics might affect the brain is relatively new. A 2023 University of Rhode Island study published in the International Journal of Molecular Science sought to understand further how microplastics and additive chemicals impact the brain.
“We found that microplastics were able to cross the blood-brain-barrier and enter into brain tissue, as well as into other peripheral tissues such as heart, liver, kidneys, and spleen, after only three weeks of exposure via drinking water.”
The study focuses on the lifecycle of microplastics in healthy mice, both young and old. “We found that microplastics were able to cross the blood-brain-barrier and enter into brain tissue, as well as into other peripheral tissues such as heart, liver, kidneys, and spleen, after only three weeks of exposure via drinking water,” Dr Jaime Ross, assistant professor, George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience College of Pharmacy, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Rhode Island, told The Earth & I.
“To our surprise, we found that the mice exposed to the microplastics also had altered behavioral patterns and displayed signs of cognitive dysfunction,” added Ross.
Reports have already identified microplastics in tissues and bodily fluids from newborn humans, including placentas, breastmilk, fecal matter, brain, and many other peripheral tissues, Ross said. “Given results from our work, I would be concerned that exposure to microplastics might have detrimental effects during development.”
Elevated Risks to Babies and Children
New evidence suggests that babies, perhaps more than any other demographic group, could be more susceptible to ingesting microplastics. Babies and small children, typically from the age of 6 months until a year old, spend much of their time crawling. This means coming into contact with household dust, some of which contains microplastics. "This is probably why the level of microplastics found in the feces of babies, as reported by a small study from 2021 by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, appeared to be over ten times higher than that found in adults," says Charron.
Plastic baby bottles also account for 80% of all baby bottles worldwide, most of which are made of polypropylene. A research paper published by Nature Food found using this type of plastic bottle releases microplastics directly into the liquid in the baby's bottle.
Scientists from Trinity College, Dublin, in Ireland, published a study in October 2020, which estimated infants could be exposed to an average of one million microplastic particles per day when fed from polypropylene baby bottles. “We don’t want to be alarmist,” the two study authors wrote. “We don’t fully understand the risks to human health through exposure to these tiny plastic particles yet, but this is an area of research that we, and other teams, are actively pursuing.”
A US plastics industry trade group said baby bottles are carefully monitored.
“The safety of plastics used in contact with foods, including baby bottles, is ‘very well regulated’ in the U.S. and Canada with the help of expert scientists,” the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division said in a statement on NBC’s Today show for their 2020 report on microplastics and plastic baby bottles. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration factors in temperature changes, such as heating the bottle, as part of its regulatory approach to food contact, the industry group added.
Baby bottles aren’t the only area of concern for infants.
In a study from 2023, scientists found microplastics had been released into disposable storage bags used for expressed breast milk. According to EDO, the scientists reported finding microplastics, most commonly polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate14 (PET), and nylon-6, equating to “an average daily breastmilk intake” of 0.61–0.89 mg of microplastics when the breastmilk was stored in the disposable bags.
Researchers suggest that parents seeking to reduce exposure to microplastics in baby bottles are advised to switch to glass or stainless-steel feeding containers. If they want to stay with plastic bottles, they should frequently rinse the bottles, prepare the formula in a non-plastic container, and avoid using microwaves to heat or reheat the bottles.
Holding Discussions with Negotiators
EDO says there needs to be an independent scientific body to assess plastics and safety.
“While the additive chemicals in plastics have been studied to the moon and back, the big area that needs more research is the microplastic particles and fibers themselves,” said Charron. Research in this area is only just starting.
Meanwhile, “the public doesn't know that microplastics are everywhere, and they don't know we are all ingesting and inhaling them," said Charron.
*Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe is a freelance journalist and editor. Over the past 10 years, Natasha has reported for a host of publications, exploring the wider world and industries from environmental, scientific, business, legal, and sociological perspectives. Natasha has also been interviewed as an insight provider for research institutes and conferences.
Sources:
Interview with Sarah Davies, Director of Media and Communications at EarthDay.Org
Interview with Dr Jaime Ross, Assistant Professor, George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience College of Pharmacy, Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of Rhode Island