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Findings Suggest Microplastics in Glass Bottles

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The ANSES study team discovered that most of the microplastic particles found in glass bottles came from the paint on the caps that seal them. These caps often rub against each other during storage, creating tiny scratches that release plastic particles.

By Salam Rajesh

The current dialogues on plastics contain in landfills, water bodies, and in all available open public spaces of convenience are mostly concentrated on the human health concerns related to microplastic and nanoplastic contain in foodstuff and food containers, resulting in different ailments including affecting vital internal body organs.

Yet, surprising enough the new focus is on the microplastic contain in glass bottles and not in plastic bottles, that is, the one-time-use plastic bottles that everyone is now frowning upon as nuisance item deepening human health concerns.

Late last month, the French food safety agency, ANSES, in a study revealed that drinks sold in glass bottles contain more microplastics than those sold in plastic bottles or in metal cans.

The ANSES study team discovered that most of the microplastic particles found in glass bottles came from the paint on the caps that seal them. These caps often rub against each other during storage, creating tiny scratches that release plastic particles. The shape, colour, and type of plastic found in the drinks matched the plastic used in the cap paint, according to the researchers.

With reference to this finding, it had been diagnosed by scientists studying the issue of microplastics contained in the one-time-use plastic bottles that the bottle cap itself contained more quantity of microplastic particles than in the entire body of the plastic bottle.

From this assessment, it is then inferred that the more danger to microplastic contamination subsequently affecting human health arise from the particles released from the bottle caps rather than from the body of the bottle itself.

Commenting on this very concern, environmental toxicologist Bethany Carney says that plastics contain thousands of chemicals, many of them toxic, carcinogenic, or endocrine-disrupting, yet current regulations do not address this complexity.

Elaborating on this context, the toxicologist explains that soft drinks contain around 30 particles per litre, lemonade contains around 40 particles per litre, beer contains about 60 particles per litre, while water contains between 1.6 to 4.5 particles per litre.

Some 20 million tons of plastic litter enter the environment every year, says the ANSES study team, warning that without urgent global action, that number could nearly double by 2040.

The plastic bottles in rivers, and turtles trapped in discarded plastic nettings are only surface symptoms, the team observed, stressing that the damage begins far upstream, at fossil fuel extraction sites, petrochemical refineries and polymer factories, and urban city dumping.

Jess Cockerill writing for the Environmental Sciences Europe (31 May, 2025) noted that tiny plastic particles are making their way into the soil, carrying with them hazardous additives and pollutants.

These substances have been detected in food crops like lettuce, wheat, and carrots, revealing how plastics and their additives make their way up the food chain into the human body through the food consumed.

Environmental biotechnologist Joseph Boctor from Murdoch University in Australia led a team that reviewed nearly 200 scientific papers to track how plastics, and the chemicals they are made with, enter farmlands and the fresh produce.

The Murdoch University scientists estimated that in Europe and in North America huge amount of microplastics end up in agricultural soils every year. They observed that acting as a long-term sink, soil accumulates these recalcitrant pollutants over time, with an estimated 22,500 tons of microplastics introduced into the United Kingdom soils annually through fertilizers and additives alone.

Joseph Boctor and team (Environmental Sciences Europe, 2025) suggest that in the human body, the micro- and nano-sized plastic particles are linked to increased male fertility problems, heart and blood vessel damages, hormone disruptions, brain neuron degeneration, and DNA damage.

The team further noted that other studies have also found that the substances used to produce plastics can be transferred from mother to baby through the placenta, which is certainly alarming since this would prove disastrous for humans in the long run.

The dialogues on microplastics do not end here. A recent study conducted by a research team from the University of Sussex and the University of Exeter revealed a rather disturbing reality that microplastics are not confined to the water bodies alone.

The team found that soil ecosystems, home to a diverse array of organisms, are also victims of the plastics pollution. Insects and earthworms, crucial to maintaining soil health, are ingesting plastic particles and these could have far-reaching consequences for the entire ecosystem, they observed.

The finding suggested that the issue of plastic pollution is more complex and widespread than previously understood. It is not any more of plastics in water bodies alone, but more concerning with plastics in soil, and the food chain.

The University of Sussex and the University of Exeter’s research involved analyzing over 580 samples from various environments, including gardens, grasslands, and farmland. The results were startling as the team explained, with microplastics found in the stomachs of one out of every ten insects they dissected.

Earthworms displayed the highest contamination rate at 30%, while slugs and snails followed closely with 24% contamination, the study revealed. The presence of microplastics in these organisms indicated a significant threat to soil health, as these creatures play a vital role in nutrient cycling and organic matter decomposition, the study team further noted.

Gabriel Cruz from the research team stressed that significant contamination rates in soil ecosystems by plastic pollution in soil poses severe risks to biodiversity and the health of the entire food chain.

Based on their findings, the study team emphasized the need for urgent action to address the multiple sources of micro (and nano) plastic contamination. Communities generating least plastic waste are the most affected, they noted, while suggesting that new international guidelines to regulate chemicals in plastics are urgently needed.

On this footnote, it is evidently observed that in every layer of water bodies and land as in Manipur State back home, plastic pollution is free-wheeling in the sense that this issue has not been dealt with effectively by the relevant State agencies.

Monsoon season is the peak time when the rivers and other water bodies are chocked with plastic and other domestic wastes, of which the river Nambul which flows through the heart of Imphal city is the worst case in hand, perhaps overshadowed by Naga Turel. Moirang Turel is also not far behind in this race, and neither is Kongba Turel.

Time now for the State Government agencies (MAHUD, Municipal Corporations, Water Resources, Pollution Control Board) to sit up and have a second look at the findings in global context, so as to resolve the issue at the local context.

 

 

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