Common single-use consumer plastic products release trillions of sub-100 nm nanoparticles per liter into water during normal use
Zangmeister CD, Radney JG, Benkstein KD, Kalanyan B (2022). Environmental Science & Technology.
What they found
Food-grade nylon bags and paper cups lined with low-density polyethylene released more than 10^12 nanoparticles per litre into water, with mean diameters of 30–80 nm. The number released depended on water temperature, and in hot water nylon released 7 times more than the cups. The authors calculate one 300 mL hot cup releases roughly one particle for every seven cells in the body.
- Sample
- Food-grade nylon bags and LDPE-lined hot beverage cups
- What it can't tell you
- Particle counts by aerosol-based sizing; at these sizes chemical identity of each particle cannot be fully confirmed. Few products. A number count, not mass; the 'one per seven cells' line is an illustration, not evidence of uptake or harm. Government (NIST) lab study.
- Funding
- Not checked (full text inaccessible). Authors are at NIST, a US government lab.
- Topics
- Food, Packaging
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 35441513)