The study finds more microplastics in glass bottles than plastic

Drinks including water, soda, beer and wine sold in glass bottles contain more small toddlers than in plastic bottles, according to a stunning study published by the Food Security Service on Friday.

Researchers have identified the tiny, mostly invisible pieces of plastic around the world, from the air we breathe in the food we eat, as well as full of human bodies.

There is still no immediate evidence that this supremacy of plastic is harmful to human health, but a growing sector of research aims to measure its spread.

Guillaume Duflos, Director of Research at the French Food Safety Agency Anses, told AFP that the team tried to “investigate the amount of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the effects that may have different containers”.

The researchers found on average about 100 microplasty particles per liter in glass bottles of soft drinks, lemonade, frozen tea and beer. This was five to 50 times higher than the rate detected in plastic bottles or metal containers.

“We were expecting the opposite result,” said student PhD Iseline Chaib, who conducted the research on AFP.

“Then we noticed that in the glass, the particles that came from the samples were the same shape, color and polymer composition – therefore the same plastic – as the color on the outside of the lids that seal the glass bottles,” he said.

The color on the lids also had “tiny scratches, invisible to the naked eye, probably due to friction between the lids when they were stored,” the body said in a statement.

This could then “release the particles on the surface of the lids,” he added.

Wine

For water, both flat and sparkling, the amount of microplastics was relatively low in all cases, ranging from 4.5 particles per liter in glass bottles up to 1.6 particles in plastic.

The wine also contained a few microplastics – even glass bottles with lids. Duflos said the reason for this discrepancy “remains to be explained”.

But soft drinks contained about 30 microplastics per liter, 40 lemonade and beer around 60.

Because there is no level of reference for a potentially toxic amount of microplastics, it was not possible to say whether these elements represent a health risk, Anses said.

But drink manufacturers could easily reduce the amount of microplastics thrown by the bottle covers, he added.

The body examined a cleaning method that includes launching air lids and then rinsed them with water and alcohol, which reduced the infection by 60 %.

The study released by Anses was published online in Journal of Food Composition and Analysis last month. AFP