BOTTLE-FED BABIES INGEST MILLIONS OF MICROPLASTICS EACH DAY: STUDY

Bottle-fed babies may ingest more than a million pieces of microplastics each day, new research showed on Monday highlighting the abundance of plastics in our food products.

There is growing evidence that humans consume huge numbers of the tiny particles, formed when larger pieces of plastic break down, but very little is known about the knock-on health consequences.

Researchers in Ireland looked at the rate of microplastic release in 10 types of baby bottles or accessories made from polypropylene, the most commonly used plastic for food containers.

They followed official guidelines from the World Health Organization on sterilisation and formula preparation conditions.

Over a 21-day test period, the team found that the bottles released between 1.3 and 16.2 million plastic microparticles per litre. They then used this data to model the potential global infant exposure to microplastics from bottle-feeding, based on national average rates of breast-feeding. They estimated that the average bottle-fed baby could be ingesting 1.6 million microplastics every day.

Pakistan’s case

The multilateral watchdog, which counters money laundering and terror financing, put Pakistan on its list of “jurisdictions under increased monitoring” or “grey list” in 2018 for not doing enough to curb financial activities of terror groups. The grey list has 18 countries.

After a plenary meeting in February, the FATF warned Pakistan that all deadlines set for implementing an action plan against terror financing had expired, and that the country had largely addressed only 14 of 27 action items in the plan.

According to a recent assessment, Pakistan is understood to have largely addressed about 20 action items. However, the FATF’s regional affiliate, the Asia-Pacific Group (APG), concluded last month that Pakistan has fully complied with only two out of 40 recommendations.

Facing the heat: Pakistan PM Imran Khan

The abuse of non-profit organisations (NPOs) and registered charities by groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was cited by the APG in its latest report as a “significant threat”, and the group retained Pakistan in its “enhanced follow-up” category.

Terror financing

Combating terror financing has been a priority for the FATF since 2001. It carries out assessments of countries on the grey list. Much of its work in Pakistan has been focused on getting the government to introduce laws to enforce UN sanctions, improve coordination between government bodies and law enforcement agencies, and prosecution of terrorists.

Though Pakistan has arrested

What’s next

Pakistan is widely expected to remain in the grey list, with little chance of it being included in the FATF’s list of “high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action” or “black list” - which currently has North Korea and Iran.

Some countries are reluctant to push for stiffer action against Pakistan at a time when it is perceived as crucial for the troubled peace process in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has China in its corner and its leadership has reached out to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for support. What remains to be seen is how much leeway the FATF will give to Pakistan to deliver on the action plan against terror financing.