Plastic
Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles
and Nanoparticles into Tea
Posted on 2019-09-25 - 12:06
The increasing presence
of micro- and nano-sized plastics in the
environment and food chain is of growing concern. Although mindful
consumers are promoting the reduction of single-use plastics, some
manufacturers are creating new plastic packaging to replace traditional
paper uses, such as plastic teabags. The objective of this study was
to determine whether plastic teabags could release microplastics and/or nanoplastics during a typical
steeping process. We show that steeping a single plastic teabag at
brewing temperature (95 °C) releases approximately 11.6 billion
microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into a single cup of the
beverage. The composition of the released particles is matched to
the original teabags (nylon and polyethylene terephthalate) using
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS). The levels of nylon and polyethylene terephthalate
particles released from the teabag packaging are several orders of
magnitude higher than plastic loads previously reported in other foods.
An initial acute invertebrate toxicity assessment shows that exposure
to only the particles released from the teabags caused dose-dependent
behavioral and developmental effects.
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Hernandez, Laura
M.; Xu, Elvis Genbo; Larsson, Hans C. E.; Tahara, Rui; Maisuria, Vimal B.; Tufenkji, Nathalie (2019). Plastic
Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles
and Nanoparticles into Tea. ACS Publications. Collection. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540