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Hazard Posed by Additives to Plastics upon Disintegration as Microplastics
Summary
Researchers reviewed the health hazards posed by chemical additives in plastics when they disintegrate into microplastics. The study found that additives such as colorants can have adverse health effects, and while regulations restrict harmful additives in food-grade plastics, microplastic fragmentation may release these chemicals into the environment in uncontrolled ways.
There are many additives used in the manufacturing of plastics, primarily to enhance the plastics’ properties and appearance. Some of these additives, for example, the colourants, have adverse impacts on human health. Consequently, many regulations restrict the use of harmful additives in food-grade plastics, but not in plastics for other uses. Such regulations overlook the possibility of other pathways for human exposure to these harmful additives. There are studies providing evidence of microplastic presence in air and drinking water and their consequent entry into the human body. Microplastics are detected in human faeces and mother’s placenta. Thus, the consumption of microplastics as a pathway of human exposure to the harmful additives in plastics deserves consideration. Since microplastics are abundant in the marine environment, this pathway of exposure to harmful chemicals is very significant for the marine environment. Identifying the harmful chemicals associated with various additives, especially the colourants, and their quantification in the marine environment will give an estimate of the exposure of marine organisms, and subsequently of human beings, to these harmful chemicals.