Microplastics in the bottle

Choose a cleanser that is not too aggressive for the bath , seek relief from the typical colic of the first months, intervene promptly at the first hint of dermatitis . The life of a new parent is full of small and big precautions, because there is nothing more important than the well-being of the newcomer . 

This explains the uproar caused by an article published by the scientific journal Nature Food . After probing data from 48 different regions of the world, researchers at Trinity College Dublin come to a sensational conclusion: a bottle-fed baby swallows microplastics every single day. 

To be precise, the study focuses on babies under 12 months of age who take formulated milk  in polypropylene bottles . It is one of the most popular materials ever (it even covers 82% of the global market), because it is practical, resistant and free of BPA (bisphenol A), a potentially harmful chemical substance. The main alternative is glass .

Well, these bottles can release up to 16.2 million microplastic particles per liter of milk . Depending on the geographical area considered, therefore, a baby can swallow between 14,500 and 4.5 million particles per day.

Microplastics and infants, a topic to be studied

But how is this possible? The main culprits are the high temperatures needed to sterilize baby bottles and prepare powdered milk , which would release millions of microplastics and billions of nanoplastics, even smaller particles. 

Some preliminary tests suggest that the same problem also occurs with kettles and food containers made from the same material. 

The research is not intended to raise parental panic. In fact, to date there is no firm evidence that ingesting microplastics compromises the health of the infant, explains the Guardian newspaper . 

It goes without saying, the researchers point out, that the issue deserves to be studied urgently . Pending new evidence, they have published a set of guidelines for sterilizing bottles by reducing exposure to particles as much as possible.

A “milestone” in the study of microplastics

The phenomenon had actually already been analyzed in the past but without ever attesting to figures of this caliber, which left Professor John Boland of Trinity College “stunned” , who signed the research together with his colleagues. 

“Last year, a study by the World Health Organization estimated that adults consume between 300 and 600 microplastics per day . The average values ​​we measured were in the millions, ”he explains. Many of these particles are simply expelled from the body , but you need to understand how many enter the bloodstream and reach other organs and tissues.

The results published by Nature Food are “an important milestone ,” according to Philipp Schwabl , a researcher at the medical university of Vienna who was not involved in the project. “The scale of exposure to microplastics that was presented in this study may seem alarming, but the concrete effects on children’s health need to be further investigated .”