(Dennis Thompson/ HealthDay News) — New parents preparing a bottle for their baby should know the infant may ingest unwanted microplastics along with the nourishing formula, a new study warns.
High levels of microplastic particles are released from baby bottles during formula preparation, researchers discovered during lab testing.
Infants are likely exposed to an average daily dose of nearly 1.6 million microplastic particles through baby formula they drink from heated plastic bottles, researchers estimated in the Oct. 19 issue of Nature.
It’s not clear whether these particles represent either an immediate or long-term health risk to growing babies, however.
“How the microplastics would affect the infants’ health is still an unknown. There is still no data available,” said study researcher Liwen Xiao, an assistant professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. (…)