> The literature was interrogated for several counts of microplastics in staples such as water, shellfish, fish, salt, beer, honey and sugar. This project did not take into account other possible direct ingestion sources such as the honey, fish, sugar (for which data was collated) or rice, pasta, bread, milk, utensils, cutlery, toothpaste, toothbrushes, food packaging and a multitude of other sources that would only add to the amount consumed. As such, there is confidence that based on the literature reviewed and subsequent analysis performed that up to 5 g/week of microplastic particles is potentially ingested by humans. Having said that, it should be stressed that the amount of the microplastics ingested by an individual will depend on a combination of parameters that is highly variable not only pertaining to the characteristics of the microplastics but also to each’s age, size, geographic location, demographics of the location, nature of development and life-style options.
> This study is being reviewed for publication; the full methodology and supplementary data will be available upon acceptance.
I believe the published paper is "Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk
assessment" (2020): https://sci-hub.do/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124004 (Same authors.)
Table 6 in the study has the "5g of plastic/week" number quoted by the article. That number is the "global average rate of microplastics ingested" ("GARMI"). GARMI is calculated as:
GARMI = Average Number of Microplastics Ingested (ANMP) x Average Mass of Individual Microplastic Particle (AMIMP)
ANIMP can be calculated in different ways. It seems the average mass of microplastic particles found in drinking water was higher than the average mass of microplastic particles found in different foods. The study says 90% of ingested plastic particles come from drinking water, so it seems reasonable to use the AMIMP of water particles rather than food particles.
ANMP_drinking_water = 91994 ("the amount of water consumed per person was assumed to be 0.6 L/day" "The figures assumed are well below the World Health Organisation's guidelines of 3 to 4 L/person/day". 0.6 L/day comes from minimum 0.45 L/day of tap water + 0.15 L/day of bottled water. 91,994 is calculated as average of min (9029 particles) and max (174,959). If you only drank tap water, this number would be 42,298.)
AMIMP_aquatic = 2.8g / 1000
ANMP_drinking_water * AMIMP_aquatic = 257g
257 / 52 ~= 5g
Challenging those variables would be where to start. But assuming they're right, probably makes sense to focus on filtering plastics from drinking water.
Link to press release for study: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured/plastic-inges...
> The literature was interrogated for several counts of microplastics in staples such as water, shellfish, fish, salt, beer, honey and sugar. This project did not take into account other possible direct ingestion sources such as the honey, fish, sugar (for which data was collated) or rice, pasta, bread, milk, utensils, cutlery, toothpaste, toothbrushes, food packaging and a multitude of other sources that would only add to the amount consumed. As such, there is confidence that based on the literature reviewed and subsequent analysis performed that up to 5 g/week of microplastic particles is potentially ingested by humans. Having said that, it should be stressed that the amount of the microplastics ingested by an individual will depend on a combination of parameters that is highly variable not only pertaining to the characteristics of the microplastics but also to each’s age, size, geographic location, demographics of the location, nature of development and life-style options.
> This study is being reviewed for publication; the full methodology and supplementary data will be available upon acceptance.
I believe the published paper is "Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested – A pivotal first step towards human health risk assessment" (2020): https://sci-hub.do/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124004 (Same authors.)
Table 6 in the study has the "5g of plastic/week" number quoted by the article. That number is the "global average rate of microplastics ingested" ("GARMI"). GARMI is calculated as:
GARMI = Average Number of Microplastics Ingested (ANMP) x Average Mass of Individual Microplastic Particle (AMIMP)
ANIMP can be calculated in different ways. It seems the average mass of microplastic particles found in drinking water was higher than the average mass of microplastic particles found in different foods. The study says 90% of ingested plastic particles come from drinking water, so it seems reasonable to use the AMIMP of water particles rather than food particles.
ANMP_drinking_water = 91994 ("the amount of water consumed per person was assumed to be 0.6 L/day" "The figures assumed are well below the World Health Organisation's guidelines of 3 to 4 L/person/day". 0.6 L/day comes from minimum 0.45 L/day of tap water + 0.15 L/day of bottled water. 91,994 is calculated as average of min (9029 particles) and max (174,959). If you only drank tap water, this number would be 42,298.)
AMIMP_aquatic = 2.8g / 1000
ANMP_drinking_water * AMIMP_aquatic = 257g
257 / 52 ~= 5g
Challenging those variables would be where to start. But assuming they're right, probably makes sense to focus on filtering plastics from drinking water.