Microplastics in drinking water pose a “low” risk to human health at current levels, but more research is needed to reassure consumers, the WHO said yesterday.
Studies over the past year on plastic particles in tap and bottled water have sparked public concerns, but the limited data appear reassuring, the UN agency said in its first report on potential health risks associated with ingestion.
Microplastics enter drinking water sources mainly through run-off and wastewater effluent, the WHO said.
Photo: AFP
Evidence shows that microplastics found in some bottled water seem to be at least partly due to the bottling process and/or packaging, such as plastic caps, it said.
“The headline message is to reassure drinking water consumers around the world that based on this assessment, our assessment of the risk is that it is low,” said Bruce Gordon of the WHO’s department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health.
Research should focus on issues including what happens to chemical additives in the particles once they enter the gastrointestinal tract, it said.
The majority of plastic particles in water are larger than 150 micrometres in diameter and are excreted from the body, while “smaller particles are more likely to cross the gut wall and reach other tissues,” the WHO said.
The biggest overall health threat in water is from microbial pathogens — including from human and livestock waste entering water sources — that cause deadly diarrheal disease, especially in poor countries lacking water treatment systems, it said.
About 2 billion people drink water contaminated with feces, causing nearly 1 million deaths annually, Gordon said.
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