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Microparticles and microplastics released from daily use of plastic feeding and water bottles and plastic injectors: potential risks to infants and children in China
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Researchers found that daily-use plastic feeding bottles, water bottles, and medical injectors commonly used for Chinese infants and children release significant numbers of microparticles and microplastics when exposed to heat and sterilization. The study estimated that infant exposure through these sources could be substantial, raising concerns about microplastic ingestion during early development.
Daily use of plastic feeding and water bottles occur widely in China, and they could be sources for release of microplastics (MPs), which threaten the health of Chinese infants and children during daily usage. In this work, we investigated the use of polycarbonate (PC) and polypropylene (PP) for making water bottles (WBs) and polyphenylene sulfone resins (PPSU) for making feeding bottles (FBs), and we found that feeding bottles and water bottles released microparticles in amounts ranging from 53 to 393 particles/mL during 100 opening/closing cycles. The good linear regressions for plots of microparticles released vs. abrasion distance (r = 0.811) indicated that thick-necked bottles release more microparticles than thin-necked bottles. The brands and types of bottles (plastic vs. glass) influence microparticle release, and this indicates that high-quality plastic and glass bottles release fewer microparticles and are good for the health of infants and children. In addition to calcium stearate and silicone additives, the identified MPs account for 7.5 to 42.1% of released microparticles with different polymer types, sizes (from 20 to 500 μm) and shapes (cubic, spherical and irregular shapes). Additionally, an average of 1.74 MPs were released from an injection with a single-use plastic injector. Nevertheless, a number of microparticles and nanosized plastics were observed with all samples, suggesting that the health risks of micro- and nanosized particles to humans, especially babies and children, and the environment should be considered seriously.
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