The bottles release a multitude of plastic microparticles

A baby drinks from a bottle (illustration).

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On average, a baby swallows more than a million plastic microparticles from his bottle every day.

This is indicated by a study published Monday in the journal

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To come to this conclusion, the researchers exposed each of the best-selling models of polypropylene baby bottles to the preparation procedure recommended by the World Health Organization: sterilizing the bottle, then preparing the formula with water heated to 70 ° C. ° C, to eliminate any dangerous bacteria.

Result: some bottles release up to 16 million microplastics per liter.

And temperature plays an important role in this phenomenon.

If the water for preparing milk is heated to 95 ° C, the amount can rise to 55 million per liter.

It can drop to a little over half a million with water at 25 ° C.

1.5 million microplastics on average per day

A 12-month-old baby swallows an average of 1.5 million microplastics every day, according to the researchers who were based in particular on the sales figures of bottles and the volume of milk ingested per day in 48 countries.

Daily exposure is higher in developed countries where breastfeeding is less important: 2.3 million in North America, 2.6 million in Europe.

"The last thing we want is to overly alarm parents, especially since we don't have enough information about the potential consequences of microplastics on baby health," commented one of the authors, John Boland.

Some studies show the extent of food contamination by microplastics, but data are lacking on the health impact of this ingestion itself or the chemical risks associated with possible additives.

Several recommendations

Nevertheless, the authors make recommendations to limit the exposure of babies to these microparticles.

They advise rinsing the bottles three times with cold sterilized water after sterilization, preparing the milk powder in a container that is not plastic before pouring the cooled liquid into the bottle, not to shake the bottle too much. and not to put it in the microwave.

And to heat the water, it is recommended not to use a plastic electric kettle which releases "a similar number of microplastics".

On the other hand, the study did not look at glass baby bottles which certainly "do not release particles", but are "heavy and breakable" and remain marginal on the market.

With the widespread use of plastic models, "studying the fate and transport of microplastics through the body is our next step," the researchers said.

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• study

• Plastic

• Health

• Baby

• Microparticles