Microplastics Found In Human Stools For the First Time (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: In a pilot study with a small sample size, researchers looked for microplastics in stool samples of eight people from Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and Austria. To their surprise, every single sample tested positive for the presence of a variety of microplastics (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). In a pilot study with a small sample size, researchers looked for microplastics in stool samples of eight people from Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and Austria. To their surprise, every single sample tested positive for the presence of a variety of microplastics.

The new paper, which was presented Monday at a gastroenterology conference in Vienna, could provide support for marine biologists who have long warned of the dangers posed by microplastics in our oceans. But the paper suggests that microplastics are entering our bodies through other means, as well. To conduct the study, they selected volunteers from each country who kept food diaries for a week and provided stool samples. Dr. Philipp Schwabl, a researcher at the Medical University of Vienna who led the study, and his colleagues analyzed the samples with a spectrometer. Up to nine different kinds of plastics were detected, ranging in size from .002 to .02 inches. The most common plastics detected were polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate -- both major components of plastic bottles and caps.

Comments

Coca Cola in plastic vs glass

[drnb]

I always preferred the Mexican imported Coca Cola in glass bottles. I suspect the taste improvement was not from cane sugar vs fructose syrup but rather due to glass bottle vs plastic. Beer also tastes better in glass bottles, cans often have an inner plastic coating on the metal. I wonder if the some of the plastic particles are coming from such food packaging? The plastic taste I find annoying has to be coming from something.

Little thought experiment here

[Crashmarik]

Take a look at what the food you eat comes packaged in.

I'll take mine as an example
Breakfast: Oatmeal, bacon and eggs. Oatmeal packeaged in a plastic container, bacon in a plastic pouch, eggs in in plastic foam carton
Lunch: Salami onion and cheese on rye (good jewish rye not that supermarket crap): Salami plastic pouch again, cheese plastic pouch, rye bread paper bag
Dinner: Stir fried vegetables (from my garden)

Of that only the food I grew myself, and the Rye I got from a kosher baker didn't have plastic involved, and I am not all that sure about the Rye. Is it any wonder there's plastic in poop ?

The question is what effect does it have ? Probably none as food grade plastics are indigestible and aren't going to be spending that much time in your digestive tract. Kids after all have been eating the damndest things since time immemorial

Re:So What

[ArylAkamov]

Depending on the plastic, it can mimic estrogen when ingested (See: Xenoestrogens).
I suspect this has a lot to do with our recent strange cultural changes.

Re:It is High Fructose Corn Syrup

[dunkelfalke]

and they did NOT consume much HFCS, because they have no corn lobby pushing it

About that. Other countries use the same shit, just not necessarily made from maize. Here in Germany, for example, it is called "glucose-fructose syrup" and is usually made from potato starch, but the difference between that and HFCS is miniscule. From my personal experience American food is way sweeter compared to the more or less similar stuff in Germany, though, that might be key difference.