Human Consumption of Microplastics Report and Podcast

Human Consumption of Microplastics” is a report published June 5, 2019 in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology. It notes that “... Microplastics are ubiquitous across ecosystems, yet the exposure risk to humans is unresolved … we evaluated the number of microplastic particles in commonly consumed foods … we estimate that annual microplastics consumption ranges from 39000 to 52000 particles depending on age and sex. These estimates increase to 74000 and 121000 when inhalation is considered ... These estimates ... are likely underestimates …”.

A podcast on the report was issued June 13, 2019 by Scientific American. The podcast notes that “… They couldn’t include common foods like beef, poultry, vegetables and dairy in their analysis because data on them doesn’t exist yet. In fact, their study could account for only 15 percent of people’s caloric intake …”.