Animal Digestible Food Packaging Initiative

The abstract of a March 24, 2022 Environment International article https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107199 by researchers with Netherlands Vrije Universiteit and Amsterdam University Medical Center reports that the goal of the study “… was to develop a robust and sensitive sampling and analytical method … to measure plastic particles … in human whole blood from 22 healthy volunteers. Four high production volume polymers … were identified and quantified … Polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene and polymers of styrene (a sum parameter of polystyrene, expanded polystyrene, acetonitrile butadiene styrene etc.) were the most widely encountered, followed by poly(methyl methacrylate). Polypropylene was analysed but values were under the limits of quantification … the mean of the sum quantifiable concentration of plastic particles in blood was 1.6 µg/ml … This pioneering human biomonitoring study demonstrated that plastic particles are bioavailable for uptake into the human bloodstream. An understanding of the exposure of these substances in humans and the associated hazard of such exposure is needed to determine whether or not plastic particle exposure is a public health risk …” #PlasticWaste #SingleUsePlastic #Microplastics @VUamsterdam