Microplastics are widely present in the drinking water of Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, a newly published study said.
The tiny particles and flakes, produced when plastic is disposed of improperly and breaks down, seep into the environment where they can be ingested by animals and humans.
Recently, researchers detected microplastics in human blood for the first time.
Each year, the world produces upward of 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, UN data show.
The WHO in 2019 issued a report saying that microplastics were “ubiquitous,” but that not enough was known about what long-term exposure would mean for human health.
“We urgently need to know more about the health impact of microplastics because they are everywhere — including in our drinking water,” WHO Department of Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health director Maria Neira said at the time.
The study, conducted by researchers from the China University of Petroleum and Covenant University in Nigeria, did not investigate the health effects of microplastics.
However, it was the first to look for them in boreholes in the Lagos area, finding that they were “abundant” in the water and sediment in all of the boreholes they sampled.
About 90 percent of Lagos’ 20 million residents get their drinking water from boreholes, as they are considered less polluted than creeks and lagoons.
The water is delivered untreated and commonly stored in tanks above people’s homes.
The researchers said that microplastics do not degrade and if plastic pollution continues, it “will result in increased accumulation in the borehole drinking water with time.”
In the report, published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, the authors suggest that the government should police industrial sources of pollution more diligently.
Researching microplastics in water is difficult, because of the lack of a standard way to measure contamination, they wrote.
“It is essential to develop general criteria for sampling and reporting on microplastics” for further research, they wrote.
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