Steam disinfection releases micro(nano)plastics from silicone-rubber baby teats as examined by optical photothermal infrared microspectroscopy
Su Y, Hu X, Tang H, Lu K, Li H, Liu S, Xing B, Ji R (2022). Nature Nanotechnology.
What they found
Steam disinfection etched silicone teat surfaces and released flake- and oil-film-shaped particles of 0.6–332 µm, including polysiloxanes and imide-containing particles from the silicone and a polyamide resin additive. The authors estimate a baby could ingest more than 0.66 million such particles by age one, and global release from teat disinfection could reach 5.2 × 10^13 particles a year.
Read this too
Author correction (Nature Nanotechnology, published 31 May 2022): 'polyimides' in the abstract and text should read 'imides'.
- Sample
- Silicone-rubber baby teats subjected to steam disinfection
- What it can't tell you
- Lab steaming, not observed home use; exposure figure is modelled. Silicone is not a conventional thermoplastic, so comparisons with plastic counts are loose. Few teat products. The authors state the health risks are unknown. Uses a newer imaging method with limited independent replication.
- Funding
- Not checked (full text inaccessible). Crossref lists the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Guangdong Key-Area R&D Program and a UMass Amherst fellowship.
- Topics
- Baby and kids, Methods
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 34764453); funders from Crossref