Are bottle Fed Babies Swallowing Millions of Microplastics a Day?
How safe are polypropylene plastic baby bottles, toys and food containers? Among plastics, PP has traditionally been considered a more stable plastic- meaning it is less likely to leach chemicals unless exposed to certain conditions like high heat. The main worry when talking about plastic baby bottles, toys (that can be placed in a babies mouth) and food containers have been the potential endocrine disruptors (hormone mimicking chemicals like BPA and other Bisphenols and others) that could affect your health. How much microplastics could be leaching from PP from plastic baby bottles has never really been studied… until now.
A new study looked specifically at the potential exposure of infants to microplastics from consuming formula prepared in polypropylene (PP) infant feeding bottles
Microplastics are are teeny tiny fragments of plastic, often too small for the eye to see. They're created as plastic degrades and are commonly found in our oceans, water and even the air we breath. Now we know that they are also released in huge quantities from plastic baby bottles when they're used to prepare formula according to standard guidelines.
The study found that Infant Feeding Bottles release microplastics with values as high as 16,200,000 particles per litre.
Considering, worldwide, baby bottles made of polypropylene represent about 82% of the market, this would lead to bottle-fed infants around the world potentially consuming more than 1.5 million particles of microplastics per day on average.
Should we be concerned?
Some ‘experts’ including the WHO say ‘not yet’ because there is not enough evidence to conclude that microplastics in drinking water pose a risk to human health, though they do add that more research is needed to draw firmer conclusion.
However, in my 11 years of looking at chemicals and their effects on human health, I can say that when a material is known to contains harmful chemicals (ie plastics contain plasticizers, petroleum products and endocrine disruptors) just because there is no evidence yet doesn’t mean you should consider it safe ie innocent until proven guilty …. in fact, for chemicals and health, especially in young children, it is usually wiser to require something be proven safe before being considered innocent .. this is called the precautionary principle and- considering babies and young children are known to be especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of chemicals- I recommend it when dealing with babies and young children.
What caused leaching of microplastics?
Mostly, heat.
The release of microplastics is highly temperature sensitive: which means sterilization and exposure to high-temperature water significantly increase microplastic release.
When the researchers filled the plastic baby bottles with room temperature water and shook them for about 60 seconds, to simulate normal formula preparations, they saw “hundreds of thousands of microplastics". When they increased that temperature to 158 F, the bottles released anywhere from 1 million to 16 million particles per liter.
Additionally, The plastic bottles that had been exposed to even low heat, continued to release microplastic particles over 21 days of testing.
Should we worry?
While we haven’t studied the health effects of microplastics on humans- we do know that in marine animals the effects are serious. Microplastics damage aquatic creatures, as well as turtles and birds: They block digestive tracts, diminish the urge to eat, and alter feeding behavior, all of which reduce growth and reproductive output. Other research has found microplastics can cause inflammation in rodents and accumulate in their guts and other organs,
In humans, it seems cumulative (chronic long term) exposure will be the main problem and this has yet to be studied, as it is quite difficult. However, one potential concern is around the ingestion of the much-smaller nanoplastics. Once in the gut, these extra tiny plastic particles can "actually make their way into the bloodstream and from their transport throughout the body."
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
when possible use glass or stainless steel bottles, glass food containers and water bottles
other sources of micro plastics include: tea bags (choose those made with fabric) plastic tea kettles, plastic instant noodle cups and plastic food storage containers, which all released similarly high levels of microplastics when subjected to heat.
My Amazon Store has my picks for both glass and stainless steel baby bottles and other item - look under BABY, and KITCHEN AND MEAL ESSENTIAL lists (or click the link above!)
SOURCES
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-health-pollution-waste-microplastics/#:~:text=Experiments%20show%20that%20microplastics%20damage,some%20species%20starve%20and%20die.
https://www.ewg.org/research/ewg%E2%80%99s-guide-baby-safe-bottles-and-formula
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/pdf/10.1289/ehp.00108s3451