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According to a major survey by the association Agir pour l’environnement published on August 22, microplastics are found in large numbers in our favorite soda bottles, after opening.
When traveling, on vacation, or under the sun, bottles of cold soda often find their place on our tables. But in addition to containing too much sugar, they are also guilty of making you ingest microplastics, according to the association Agir pour l’environnement. Dozens of microparticles have been found in bottles of Coca and Schweppes.
Up to 93 microparticles in a bottle of Schweppes
By mobilizing two laboratories specialized in the research and identification of micro- and nanoplastics, Agir pour l’Environnement thus looked for the presence of undesirables by opening a bottle of Coca-Cola and a bottle of Schweppes one, ten and twenty times. With an astonishing result:
Six different types of plastics have been identified in drinksincluding polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate and polyvinyl chloride.There are 46 and 93 plastic microparticles respectively in a one-litre bottle of Coca-Cola and a one-and-a-half-litre bottle of Schweppes after about twenty openings. Nanoparticles of 200 to 600 nanometres were also detected by a second laboratory after just one opening of the bottles,” writes the association in its press release. Nanoparticles, whose size makes them possibly much more reactive with human tissues.
These numbers increase when consumers open the plastic bottle multiple times, the study said.This causes deterioration of the cork”explains Stephen Kerckhove, general director of the association Agir pour l’environnement.
What are the risks for our health?
With these discoveries, the association now intends to use them to discover the impact on our health, these swallowed plastic nanoparticles being 10,000 times smaller than a hair. “There are few studies that allow us to establish a link between the presence of microplastic and a substantial impact on health, but we know that nanoparticles are likely to migrate in the human body by crossing physiological barriers, due to their size.”says Stephen Kerckhove.
Agir pour l’Environnement therefore immediately contacted the National Agency for Food Safety (ANSES) and the General Directorate for the Suppression of Fraud (DGCCRF) so that they could quickly launch an investigation.