FIVE THINGS ABOUT MICROPLASTICS IN PRODUCE
Carrots are contaminated with microplastics that could be harmful to humans, scientists have found in separate studies. In the first peer-reviewed work at the University of Catania in Sicily, scientist Margherita Ferrante found apples were the fruit most contaminated with microplastics, while carrots were the most affected vegetable.
1 SCANNED AND SUSSED
Researchers bought fruit and vegetables from local markets, supermarkets and shops. They were thoroughly washed, peeled (with the exception of lettuce and broccoli), blended and dried before being analyzed using a scanning electron microscope to calculate microparticles.
2 THEY PREFER FRUIT
Scientists found that plastic particles were more concentrated in fruit than in vegetables and that microplastic sizes varied in plants. Microplastics are usually less than five millimetres in diameter and can include particles as small as 10 nanometres (there are a million nanometres in a millimetre).
3 EFFECTS UNKNOWN
The research highlights the “worrying estimated daily intakes, either for adults or for children in terms of plastic particles” but the extent of the potential effects on humans has yet to be understood. Published this week in the journal Environmental Research, the study calls for an urgent review of the effects of microplastics on human health.
4 FROM THE GROUND UP
The second peer-reviewed study claimed that plastics were being absorbed with the water via the root systems of crops. The study was performed jointly by Lianzhen Li of the Yanthai Institute of Coastal Zone Research in China and Willie Peijnenburg from Leiden University in the Netherlands and is to be published in the journal Nature Sustainability.
5 AT THE ROOT OF IT
For decades scientists believed that larger plastic particles could not pass through the physical barriers of plant tissue. But the research has cast doubts on this — with root vegetables such as carrots, radishes, turnips, and leafy vegetables like lettuce found to be most at risk of microplastic contamination.