Table 4 Exposure assessments to microplastics through various individual sources
From: Microplastics in food: scoping review on health effects, occurrence, and human exposure
Source of exposure | Estimated consumption | Exposure level | Type of polymer | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Water and beverages | 2.2-3 L/day | 4400-5800 particles/ person/year | Anthropogenic debrisa | (Kosuth et al. 2018) |
Bottled mineral water | 2 L/day (adults) 1 L/day (children) | 1,531,524 particles/kg/ body weight/day (adults) 3,350,208 particles/kg/ body weight/day (children) | PET | (Zuccarello et al. 2019) |
Salts | 14.8-18.01 g/day | Up to 302 particles/person/year | PE, PP, PET, PU, PVC, PA | (Gündoğdu 2018) |
Salts | 3.95 g/day | Maximum of 37 particles/person/year | PE, PP, PET, PS, polyacrylonitrile, PA | (Karami et al. 2017) |
Salts | 5 g/day | 131.4–372.3 particles/person/year (Croatia) 306.6–580.35 particles/person/year (Italy) | PET, PVC, PE, PS, PA, PP | (Renzi et al. 2019) |
Fruit and vegetables | High intake for apples and pears of 165.3 and 115.7 g/day for adults and children, respectively Low intake for carrots of 20.3 and 18.0 g/day for adults and children, respectively | 1.15 × 105-1.41 × 106 particles/kg body weight /day (children) 2.96 × 104-4.62 × 105 particles/kg body weigh /day (adults) | nr | (Oliveri Conti et al. 2020) |
Seafood | 9.6 -57 kg/year | 518 – 3078 particles/person/year | PE, polyester, semisynthetic cellulose | (Barboza et al. 2020) |
Mussels | 0.082-3.08 kg/year | 123-4620 particles/person/year | PET, PU | (Catarino et al. 2018) |
Vinegar | 3.1 L/year | Up to 3.68 particles/kg/body weight/year (adults) Up to 16.08 particles/kg/body weight/year (children) | PE, butylated hydroxytoluene, Irganox, Erucamide | (Makhdoumi et al. 2021) |
Food contact materials | 4-7 takeout’s weekly | 12–203 particles/person/weekly | PP, PS, PE, PET | Du et al. 2020 |
Infant feeding bottles | – | 14,600–4,550,000 particles/person/day | PP | (Li et al. 2020) |
Household dust fallout | Evening meals | 13,731-68,415 particles/person/year | na | (Catarino et al. 2018) |