How plastics can end up in a foetus’s organs

EXPERTS have recommended drinking out of glass or metal bottles due to fears that tiny plastic particles may damage our health.

Dr Luisa Campagnolo, an expert in histology and embryology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, warned there is mounting evidence that micro and nanoplastics end up in human tissue.

Previous studies have shown microscopic particles – a by-product of the degradation of plastic – can end up in the human bloodstream and even the placenta.

But a new study of rats, shown at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s conference, reveals ingested plastics can end up in a foetus’s organs. Dr Campagnolo, who wasn’t involved in that study, said: ‘It’s probably less handy but we should not drink bottled water in plastic bottles. We should go back to glass.’

Dr Philip Demokritou, a nanoscience expert at Rutgers University, New Jersey, said his rat study, published last month in Nanomaterials, showed: ‘From the stomach of the pregnant animal, 24 hours later we found these microand nano-plastics in the placenta. More importantly, we found them in every organ of the foetus...’