Metal bottle caps ‘surprising’ source of microplastic contamination, study finds
Glass bottles had highest levels of the substance compared with beer, water, wine and soft drinks, researchers found
by Tom Perkins, theguardian.com
Metal bottle caps can be a significant source of microplastic contamination in beverages, a new peer-reviewed study by France’s food safety agency finds.
Researchers compared microplastic levels in beer, water, wine and soft drinks, and found the substance in all samples, but liquid in glass jars showed the highest levels. The surprising source of the contamination – a polyester-based paint on the glass bottles’ metal caps.
The findings were “very surprising”, said Alexandre Dehaut, a study co-author with the French agency for food, environmental and occupational health and safety.
“Caps were suspected to be the main source of contamination, as the majority of particles isolated in beverages were identical to the color of caps and shared the composition of the outer paint,” the authors wrote in the study.
Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic either intentionally added to consumer goods, or that are products of larger plastics breaking down. The particles contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals, of which thousands, such as BPA, phthalates and Pfas, present serious health risks.
The substance has been found throughout the human body, and is a neurotoxicant that can cross the placental and brain barriers. It is linked to an increased risk of heart attack and cancer.
Diet is thought to be a main exposure route – testing in recent years has consistently identified microplastics in a range of foods and beverages, and packaging is one source of contamination.
Researchers in the new study checked beverages in water, glass, metal and brick bottles, and found microplastics in all.
The levels in the glass bottles were highest – about 50 times higher than the plastic. The glass bottles used metal caps, while the plastic bottles came with plastic caps. The plastic caps did not use the same kind of paint as the metal caps, researchers noted.
Dehaut said they were led to the paint because the microplastic fragments they found in the beverages seemed to match the paint. Closer scrutiny revealed the microplastics matched material, color and polymeric composition of the paint lining the outside of the caps.
It appears the bottle caps are stored post production with thousands of other caps in bags or boxes, and those scrape each other as they are jostled, Dehaut noted. Once the caps are sealed to the bottles, the bits of plastic from the scratches end up in the beverage. The authors were able to see the tiny scrapes and scratches when they placed the caps under a microscope.
Researchers also found that the problem may be easy to solve – the microplastic can be removed from the caps by rinsing and blowing them dry at the end of the manufacturing process. However, Dehaut said the strategy worked in the lab, but it may be more difficult to do on an industrial scale.
They also found microplastics that did not come from the paint, meaning the contamination occurred somewhere in the production process, or was in the product’s water.
Though the dangers of microplastics are coming into sharper focus, the health impacts of those that researchers found in the bottles are unclear because there is so much variation in the type of plastic, and they did not run risk assessments, Dehaut said.
Consumers could avoid metal bottle caps. Dehaut said there is little people can do at home about the contamination because the microplastics are already in the beverages. He said the findings point to the need to investigate and avoid contamination further upstream during the production process.
“We should investigate such things, but don’t be paranoid,” Dehaut said.
New book by Etienne de la Boetie2 exposes that the government and Hollywood have been running a multi-generational, trillion-dollar psychological operation on the population to indoctrinate them into accepting a ruling class, confiscatory taxation, and inflationary fractional reserve currency issued by private banks.
The book details 25 unethically manipulative techniques the “government” and monopoly media have been secretly using on the population, ranging from a hidden curriculum in their mandatory schools and scouting to the secret placement of propaganda in over 1,000+ movies and 1,000+ television shows. These techniques include subliminal messages and product placement of the American flag “anchored” to moments of high-positive emotion during the “programming”.
See the Press Release with more details HERE.
Buy the book at SeeTheCage.com
Substack readers can get the book for FREE by “Going Paid” to ANY of the Art of Liberty Foundation’s four Substacks AND get access to all four of those Substacks! Simply “Go Paid” and we will reply with details.
thank you
I no longer eat in restaurants. I do not drink beer or wine anymore. I've never consumed frozen food (or owned a tv). I finally quit eating crackers and corn chips from the graveyard of the grocery store (a big addiction for me:). I switched to organic popcorn (Amish Country Popcorn) which is boring but safer.
Due to glyphosate poisoning in the 1990's, I stopped eating any kind of bread decades ago, and now I make it myself with organic flour. So, I missed the "yoga mat" chemical contamination of bread products to make the air bubbles uniform and reduce the kneading time required.
My rule is: If a food is made for thousands of people, it's not made for me. It's so boring... but, at least I don't get sick.:))))))))) and I'm slowly learning to cook with sauces I can make and freeze that are organic. Sauces can help prepare different meals faster. I also pre-saute and freeze mushrooms and onions together so I can add them to other stuff. The biggest drawback of all of this is it's freezer dependent and if the power goes out, I'm screwed.
What I really don't want to increase in my body is the nanotech contamination. I can't stop breathing the air, but at least I can try to avoid taking it in every other way.