{"title":"A systematic review and quality assessment of estimated daily intake of microplastics through food.","authors":"Su Ji Heo, Nalae Moon, Ju Hee Kim","doi":"10.1515/reveh-2024-0111","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plastic waste enters the oceans and soil and is consumed by organisms and humans. Some of the ingested microplastics may remain in the human body and cause toxicity. We conducted a systematic review to estimate the extent to which humans are exposed to microplastics through consumption and performed a quality assessment of research results. We searched for studies published up to December 2023 and included studies that reported on the characteristics and estimated intake of microplastics. The quality assessment tool reported in previous studies was used for food and drinking water studies. We included 76 studies in the analysis, and the types of foods were classified into seven categories: seafood, drinking water, table salt, fruits and vegetables, beverages, condiments, and meat. The estimated daily intake of microplastics via food was 0.0002-1,531,524 MP/day, with the highest value in bottled water. The quality of food and drinking water studies was evaluated using a quantitative tool to assess reliability. The quality of food studies was 11.50 out of 20 points and the quality of drinking water studies was 11.16 out of 19 points. These results indicate that the closer the score is to the maximum, the more reliable the research findings. The quantitative assessment can be used as an indicator for evaluating the risks of microplastics and can help reduce biases that may occur during the research process. This study confirmed microplastics in foods and human exposure to up to one million microplastics daily. Our study emphasizes the potential for microplastic exposure through food intake and subsequent accumulation in the human body; therefore, efforts are needed to reduce exposure to microplastics in daily life.</p>","PeriodicalId":21165,"journal":{"name":"Reviews on Environmental Health","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Reviews on Environmental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh-2024-0111","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Plastic waste enters the oceans and soil and is consumed by organisms and humans. Some of the ingested microplastics may remain in the human body and cause toxicity. We conducted a systematic review to estimate the extent to which humans are exposed to microplastics through consumption and performed a quality assessment of research results. We searched for studies published up to December 2023 and included studies that reported on the characteristics and estimated intake of microplastics. The quality assessment tool reported in previous studies was used for food and drinking water studies. We included 76 studies in the analysis, and the types of foods were classified into seven categories: seafood, drinking water, table salt, fruits and vegetables, beverages, condiments, and meat. The estimated daily intake of microplastics via food was 0.0002-1,531,524 MP/day, with the highest value in bottled water. The quality of food and drinking water studies was evaluated using a quantitative tool to assess reliability. The quality of food studies was 11.50 out of 20 points and the quality of drinking water studies was 11.16 out of 19 points. These results indicate that the closer the score is to the maximum, the more reliable the research findings. The quantitative assessment can be used as an indicator for evaluating the risks of microplastics and can help reduce biases that may occur during the research process. This study confirmed microplastics in foods and human exposure to up to one million microplastics daily. Our study emphasizes the potential for microplastic exposure through food intake and subsequent accumulation in the human body; therefore, efforts are needed to reduce exposure to microplastics in daily life.
期刊介绍:
Reviews on Environmental Health (REVEH) is an international peer-reviewed journal that aims to fill the need for publication of review articles on hot topics in the field of environmental health. Reviews on Environmental Health aims to be an inspiring forum for scientists, environmentalists, physicians, engineers, and students who are concerned with aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by physiological and psychosociological interactions between man and physical, chemical, biological, and social factors in the environment.
Reviews on Environmental Health is an important niche served by no other journal, that’s being a site where thoughtful reviews can be published on a variety of subjects related to both health and environment. One challenge is to bridge the research on environmental causes of disease with the clinical practice of medicine. Reviews on Environmental Health is a source of integrated information on environment and health subjects that will be of value to the broad scientific community, whether students, junior and senior professionals, or clinicians.