Your Salad Might Be Bringing Microplastics From Soil Into Your Body
Tiny plastic particles are infiltrating agricultural soils, bringing with them hazardous chemical additives and pollutants. These substances have already been found in foods like lettuce, wheat, and carrots, showing how plastics and their compounds can enter the food chain — ending up in your salad and, eventually, inside your body.
Tracking the Sources of Contamination
Joseph Boctor, an environmental biotechnologist from Murdoch University in Australia, led a team that analyzed nearly 200 scientific studies to better understand how plastics and the chemicals they contain end up in crops and farming systems.
Research suggests that hundreds of thousands of tons of microplastics are deposited annually in agricultural soils across Europe and North America.
Soils act as long-term sinks for these persistent pollutants,” the team reports.In the UK alone, fertilizers and additives introduce around 22,500 tons of microplastics into the soil each year, according to estimates.
One major contributor to the problem is plastic mulching — a widespread farming practice that involves covering the soil with plastic sheets to suppress weeds, retain moisture, and regulate soil temperature. While effective at increasing yields and water efficiency, it has also become the primary source of micro- and nanoplastics in farming soil, according to several studies.
The researchers also identified other sources of contamination, such as sewage sludge, biosolids, and organic fertilizers, all of which introduce microplastics into grains, vegetables, and other crops.
How Plants Absorb Microplastics
Plants absorb microplastics in several ways. One method is endocytosis, where plant cells — particularly in the roots — engulf particles from their surroundings. Plants can also absorb the particles directly from the air through their leaf pores or take them up with water drawn from the soil.
“These microplastics are turning agricultural land into plastic reservoirs,” says Boctor. He raises concerns over the lack of regulation and limited research around microplastics and their associated chemical additives, which may impact both food production and human health.
Once micro- and nanoplastics enter the human body, researchers have linked them to male fertility issues, cardiovascular damage, hormonal imbalances, neuron degeneration, and even DNA alterations. Alarmingly, some studies have shown that mothers can transfer the chemicals used to manufacture plastics to their babies through the placenta.
Toxic Additives in Plastics
Scientists consider phthalates — linked to hormonal and reproductive issues — and PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), a class of flame retardants, among the most worrisome plastic additives due to their association with increased cancer risk and toxic effects on the liver, thyroid, and reproductive and immune systems in rodent studies.
This review aims to bring this creeping danger to light and push regulators to act, Boctor concludes. The plastic crisis has spiraled out of control, and it now threatens human health.”
This isn’t some distant threat — it’s happening now, inside living systems, quietly and systematically.
Read the original article on: Science Alerte
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