They are tiny pieces of plastic less than 5 mm in length. Known as microplastics, they are inadvertently consumed by humans, but until now, the health consequences were largely unknown. That recently changed with the findings of a study by Nanjing Medical University.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition affecting around 10 percent of the world population. And that 10 percent have a greater prevalence of microplastics in their waste, the research team at Nanjing Medical found.
Obtaining human waste samples from 50 healthy people and 52 people with IBD from different geographic regions of China, the team were able to demonstrate that the samples from IBD patients contained approximately 1.5 times more microplastic particles per gram than those from healthy subjects.
The two most common types of plastic in both groups were polyethylene terephthalate (PET; used in bottles and food containers) and polyamide (PA; found in food packaging and textiles), reveals a press release from the American Chemical Society.
The researchers methodology comprised a questionnaire, through which it was found that people in both groups who drank bottled water, ate takeaway food and were often exposed to dust had more microplastics in their waste.
The prevalence of IBD, which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is rising globally. Characterised by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, IBD can be triggered or made worse by diet and environmental factors.
“These results suggest that people with IBD may be exposed to more microplastics in their gastrointestinal tract”, researchers said.
“However, it’s still unclear whether this exposure could cause or contribute to IBD, or whether people with IBD accumulate more fecal microplastics as a result of their disease.”
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are typical IBDs. Sufferers experience gripping stomach pains, tiredness, flatulence, nausea, backaches and have problems in going to the bathroom.
