Each week we swallow a credit card-worth of plastic particles. Here's what they're REALLY doing to your body, and how to avoid them By John Naish Published: 12:02 BST, 24 May 2024 | Updated: 12:41 BST, 24 May 2024 e-mail 9 View comments Would you like a side-order of plastic with your meal? The chances are it will come with one anyway. The number of microscopic plastic particles that have found their way into our environment is so numerous that virtually any food that you choose to eat – fresh or frozen, precooked or raw - is likely to contain them.
But you won't spot them in your food – or feel them as you swallow. These tiny particles are known as microplastics - sized from 5mm down to 0.0001mm, or nanoplastics, which are anything smaller than that.
Researchers are urgently trying to find ways to limit the amount of plastic absorbed into our bodies Plastics break down throughout the environment and can enter the food chain through water, soil, feed and even the air Each week we swallow about 5g of plastic particles, the weight of a credit card - according to a review of data from 50 studies, published in 2019 by scientists at the University of Newcastle in Australia . Over a year this adds up to 260g, or half a pound. Researchers are now urgently trying to find ways to limit the amount absorbed into our bodies (for steps you can take, see below) as science starts to uncover the consequences this contamination may be having for our health - and, apocalyptic as it might s.
