The microplastics It is now impossible to avoid, they are everywhere. To food that we eat, in water We drink, in the clothes we wear and in the cosmetics we use.

Now, a new study shows that a daily habit can “flood” our body with tens of thousands of extra tiny plastic particles each year, and this can seriously affect our health.

University researchers Concordia In Canada they analyzed over 140 scientific studies and found that the average man swallows 39,000 to 52,000 microplastics per year.

Exposure to microplastics increases when particles detach from the inner wall of the plastic bottle and leak into the water, especially when the bottle pressed or heated.

‘Drinking water from plastic bottles is acceptable in a state of need but should not be a daily practice”Said the SarahSpecialist in Environmental Management and Head of Research.

Difficult, of course, to cut it: in 2024, bottled water remained the number one packaged drink in America For the ninth consecutive year, exceeding soft drinks and juices.

Consumers drank 16.2 billion gallons bottled wateran increase of 2% compared to 2023. It is enough to fill over over 24,000 Olympic pools.

“Education is the most important step we can take,” Sasdey added. ‘The problem is not the acutenessbut the chronic toxicity“

Scientists are still trying to fully understand how microplastics affect human health – but one is certain: They do not just pass through the body and leave.

After being swallowed, these tiny particles – often smaller than a rice grain – can enter the bloodstream and accumulate in vital organs and tissues such as heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, testicles and placenta.

Surveys have shown that they are small enough to even penetrate the blood -brain – something that is considered extremely difficult.

Inside the body, microplastics can cause chronic inflammation, cellular lesions, hormonal disorders and disrupt the gut.

Although long -term consequences have not been fully documented, early animal and human cell studies have linked exposure to microplastics with cancer, infertility, heart disease, pulmonary disease and other serious health risks.

Sasdey and her team are now asking for the establishment uniform models For microplastics levels in products such as plastic water bottles as well as stricter policies to limit plastic pollution.

In January, the International Bottled Water Association He responded to growing concerns, noting that bottled water is “only one of the thousands of products sold in plastic packaging”.

“The bottled water industry is committed to providing consumers with the safest and quality hydration products,” the Association said in a statement. “We support additional research on this important issue.”