Deng Jingyu, Ibrahim Mohammed Shahrudin, Tan Li Yang, Yeo Xin Yi, Lee Yong An, Park Sung Jin, Wüstefeld Torsten, Park June-Woo, Jung Sangyong, Cho Nam-Joon
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Republic of Singapore.
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A⁎STAR), Singapore 138667, Republic of Singapore; Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119228, Republic of Singapore.
J Hazard Mater. 2022 Aug 5;435:128980. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128980. Epub 2022 Apr 20.
The ingestion and accumulation of microplastics is a serious threat to the health and survival of humans and other organisms given the increasing use of daily-use plastic products, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, whether direct microplastic contamination from plastic packaging is a threat to human health remains unclear. We analyzed the market demand for plastic packaging in Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe and identified the commonly used plastic food packaging products. We found that food containers exposed to high-temperature released more than 10 million microplastics per mL in water. Recycled plastic food packaging was demonstrated to continuously leach micro- and nanoplastics. In vitro cell engulfing experiments revealed that both micro- and nanoplastic leachates are readily taken up by murine macrophages without any preconditioning, and that short-term microplastic exposure may induce inflammation while exposure to nanoplastic substantially suppressed the lysosomal activities of macrophages. We demonstrated that the ingestion of micro- and nanoplastics released from food containers can exert differential negative effects on macrophage activities, proving that the explosive growth in the use of plastic packaging can poses significant health risks to consumers.
鉴于日常塑料制品的使用日益增加，尤其是在新冠疫情期间，微塑料的摄入和积累对人类及其他生物的健康与生存构成了严重威胁。然而，塑料包装直接造成的微塑料污染是否会对人类健康构成威胁仍不明确。我们分析了亚太地区、北美和欧洲对塑料包装的市场需求，并确定了常用的塑料食品包装产品。我们发现，暴露于高温的食品容器在水中每毫升会释放出超过1000万个微塑料。事实证明，回收塑料食品包装会持续渗出微塑料和纳米塑料。体外细胞吞噬实验表明，微塑料和纳米塑料浸出液无需任何预处理就能被小鼠巨噬细胞轻易摄取，而且短期接触微塑料可能会引发炎症，而接触纳米塑料则会显著抑制巨噬细胞的溶酶体活性。我们证明，摄入食品容器释放的微塑料和纳米塑料会对巨噬细胞活性产生不同的负面影响，这证明塑料包装使用量的爆炸式增长会给消费者带来重大健康风险。
