Bottled water contains around 240,000 plastic particles per litre
Columbia researchers used a new imaging method to count nanoplastics in bottled water and found roughly ten times more particles than earlier estimates.
Human health
-
-
People swallow and breathe in up to 121,000 microplastic particles a year
The first systematic estimate of human microplastic intake found tens of thousands of particles a year, far more for people who drink only bottled…
-
Indoor air delivers about 68,000 lung-penetrating plastic particles a day
French researchers found the air in homes and cars carries far more fine microplastic than earlier estimates, roughly 100 times higher.
-
Lancet Countdown: plastics cost more than US$1.5 trillion a year in health damage
The Lancet’s new annual tracker calls plastics a grave, growing and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health.
-
Minderoo-Monaco Commission: plastics harm health at every stage of their life
The first full-lifecycle medical review found plastics cause disease from oil extraction through manufacturing, use and disposal.
-
One plastic chemical linked to 356,000 heart-disease deaths a year
New York University (NYU) researchers estimate the plasticiser di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was linked to 13.5% of all cardiovascular deaths among 55–64-year-olds worldwide in 2018.
-
Heart patients with plastic in their arteries had 4.5 times the risk of death or stroke
A NEJM study found microplastics in 58% of artery plaques, and those patients suffered far more heart attacks, strokes and deaths over three years.
-
144 chemicals known to be hazardous are actively used in plastics
The Endocrine Society and International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN)’s guide catalogues the plastic additives linked to cancer, diabetes, infertility and developmental harm.
-
More than 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics, and a quarter are of concern
The PlastChem report found far more chemicals in plastics than regulators assumed, with over 4,200 hazardous and fewer than 6% regulated internationally.
-
EU cuts the ‘safe’ dose of bisphenol A (BPA) 20,000-fold and then bans it in food packaging
The European Food Safety Authority concluded that dietary BPA exposure exceeds the new safe level by hundreds of times in every age group.