Babies drinking formula can ingest high levels of potentially dangerous microplastics released from the bottles into the liquid, a new study reveals.
High levels of microplastics are released from infant feeding bottles during formula preparation and sterilisation, the new research from Trinity College Dublin has found.
In particular, a greater number of microplastics are released when warm liquids such as formula or water for sterilising the bottles are used.
Babies in Europe, as well as the US and the Oceanic region, are most likely to ingest the highest number of microplastics.
The team at Trinity found that around the world, babies consume on average 1,580,000 plastic particles per day while drinking from polypropylene bottles. But babies across Europe ingest 2,610,000 particles per day.
Polypropylene is one of the most commonly produced plastics in the world for food preparation and storage.
It is used to make everyday items such as lunch boxes, kettles and infant feeding bottles.
But despite its widespread use the capacity of polypropylene to release microplastics was not appreciated until now.
The team at Trinity, led by Dr Jing Jing Wang, Prof John Boland and Prof Liwen Xiao, have analysed the potential for release of microplastics from polypropylene infant feeding bottles during formula preparation.
They found that polypropylene infant feeding bottles can release up to 16 million microplastics and trillions of smaller nanoplastics per litre.
Sterilisation and exposure to high temperature water significantly increase microplastic release.
Prof John Boland said: “The last thing we want is to unduly alarm parents, particularly when we don’t have sufficient information on the potential consequences of microplastics on infant health.
“We are calling on policy makers, however, to reassess the current guidelines for formula preparation when using plastic infant feeding bottles.
“Crucially, we have found that it is possible to mitigate the risk of ingesting microplastics by changing practices around sterilisation and formula preparation.” Meanwhile, lead authors of the research report, Dr Dunzhu Li and Dr Yunhong Shi said: “We have to accept that plastics are pervasive in modern life, and that they release micro and nano plastics through everyday use.
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“We don’t yet know the risks to human health of these tiny plastic particles, but we can develop behavioural and technological solutions and strategies to mitigate against their exposure.”
The level of microplastics released from the plastic bottles can be significantly reduced by following modified sterilisation and formula preparation procedures.
The research has been undertaken by the Microplastics Group led by Dr Jing Jing Wang at AMBER and CRANN, with internal collaboration from TrinityHaus and Trinity’s School of Engineering and School of Chemistry.