You Eat A Credit Card’s Worth Of Plastic Each Week

New research shows that the average person eats a horrifying amount of plastic each week. This is due to humanity’s dependance on plastic, which degrades into tiny particles called nanoplastics (less than 0.001 millimeters) and microplastics (between 0.0001 and 5 millimeters). Plastic waste has infiltrated virtually all of our food and water supplies. So, we’re all ingesting about a credit card’s worth of plastic every seven days.

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Worse, these nano- and microplastics are found in drinking water. Drinking the daily recommendation of water from a tap source results in about 40,000 plastic particles entering your system every year.

If you drink water from plastic bottles, that amount more than doubles.

Your daily dose of water x 365 days leads to about 90,000 plastic particles getting into your body.

We also ingest plastic via food and plastic packaging. Marine life is chock-full of plastic thanks to human garbage in the oceans. So, when you eat a salmon steak or tuna sandwich, you are still consuming micro- and nanoplastics.

Over 14 million tons of plastic get into our oceans every year.

These plastic particles get into your gastrointestinal tract and then cause inflammatory responses. They’ve been linked to carcinogenesis, which is the process of cells turning into cancer.

Lukas Kenner, one of the researchers responsible for this horror story, says, “A healthy gut is more likely to ward off the health risk. But local changes in the gastrointestinal tract, such as those present in chronic disease or even negative stress, could make them susceptible to the harmful effects of MNPs [Micro- and Nanoplastics].”

This means that people with chronic diseases are especially at risk of suffering from the long-term effects of eating plastics. Eating a credit card’s worth of plastic each week adds up.

The Oceanic Society has some recommendations for reducing plastic waste:

  • Reduce use of single-use plastics (grocery bags, straws, utensils, etc.)
  • Support legislation that seeks to curb plastic pollution
  • Recycle properly
  • Participate in water-side cleanups
  • Stop buying and using products with microbeads (found in scrubs, exfoliants, cosmetics, etc.)
  • Tell other people about the plastic problem
  • Support organizations working to stop plastic pollution

What do you think?

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