Microplastics from consumer plastic food containers: Are we consuming it?

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) Vol. 253; p. 126787
• Main Authors: Fadare, Oluniyi O., Wan, Bin, Guo, Liang-Hong, Zhao, Lixia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-08-2020
• Subjects: Human exposure; Plastic containers; SEM; Unintentionally produced microplastics; Unintentionally produced microplastics; SEM; Plastic containers; Human exposure
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126787

Microplastic (MP) accumulation in the environment has become an issue of human and environmental importance. Great efforts were made recently to identify the sources of MP exposure to humans and their release into the environment. Here, we employed spectroscopic techniques to identify and characterize MP in consumer plastic food containers that are, in huge quantity, used for food delivery and disposable plastic cups for daily drinking. We determined the average weight of isolated MP per pack to be 12 ± 5.12 mg, 38 ± 5.29 mg, and 3 ± 1.13 mg for the round-shaped, rectangular-shaped plastic container and disposable plastic cups, respectively, with various morphological features including cubic, spherical, rod-like as well as irregular shapes, which may either be consumed by humans or released into the environment. This study demonstrates that new plastic containers can be an important source of direct human and environmental exposure to microplastics. Most importantly, our results indicated that necessary attention must be given to morphological features of realistic MPs when evaluating their risks to humans and the environment.
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•Microplastics in new plastic food containers were isolated and characterized.•Majority of the microplastic particles isolated are in nano size.•188 tonnes of MPs are estimated to be released annually for human consumption.