Microplastics: Effects on Health and Occurence in Foods

Abstract

Plastic materials are found in almost every place of the daily life. Plastics, which have become an indispensable item of the human life due to their widespread use, are considered as one of the biggest pollutants of today. It is known that plastic use, which increases day by day, creates a serious pollution problem especially in the oceans and seas. The two most important factors which causes plastic pollution are the industrial activities and anthropogenic effects. Although tons of waste plastic released to the environment are physically crashed by the effect of environmental conditions, they can still remain without degraded in the nature for decades even hundreds of years. These micronic and submicronic particles formed by the decomposition of the plastics are called microplastics. In addition to being a current subject, microplastics have gained great attention or importance in recent years in terms of creating environmental pollution. Microplastics have become a serious threat to both aquatic life and human health. The transition of microplastics to the human body takes place through skin contact, inhalation and oral route. The risks and health effects of the microplastics when taken into the human body by different routes has not been well-clarified yet. It is likely that multiple microplastic uptake into the body would take place as a result of consumption of the contaminated water sources and the foods. Numerous studies have been conducted on the determination of the presence of microplastics in water resources and the aquatic life. However, a limited number of studies on foodstuffs have shown that our foods may also contain microplastics. Microplastic formation in foodstuffs may be resulted from the raw materials, food production or processing steps and the plastics used in packaging or air. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effects of microplastics on the environmental pollution and human health, and their presence in the food chain were scrutinized.

Keywords

• Microplastic
• Ecosystem
• Health
• Food chain

Mikroplastikler: Gıdalarda Bulunuşu ve Sağlık Üzerine Etkileri

Öz

Plastik malzemeler günlük hayatımızın hemen hemen her alanında yer almaktadır. Yaygın kulanımı nedeniyle hayatın vazgeçilmez unsurlarından biri halini alan plastikler, çevre açısından da günümüzün en büyük kirleticilerinden birisi olarak görülmektedir. Her geçen gün daha da artan plastik kullanımının özellikle okyanuslar ve denizlerde çok ciddi bir kirlilik oluşturduğu bilinmektedir. Plastik kirliliğini oluşturan en önemli iki unsur, endüstriyel faaliyetler ve antropojenik etkilerdir. Çevreye bırakılan tonlarca plastik atık, çevresel koşulların etkisiyle fiziksel olarak küçük parçalara ayrılsa da yüzyıllarca doğada bozunmadan kalmaktadır. Plastiklerin parçalanmaları ile oluşan mikron ve mikron altı boyuttaki bu parçacıklara, mikroplastik adı verilmektedir. Mikroplastikler güncel bir konu olmasının yanı sıra çevre kirliliği oluşturması ve doğal yaşama etkileri nedeniyle son yıllarda giderek daha da büyük bir önem kazanmaktadır. Mikroplastikler artık hem suda yaşayan canlılar ve hem de insan sağlığı için büyük bir tehdit unsuru olmuştur. Mikroplastiklerin insan vücuduna geçişi, cilt teması, solunum ve oral yolla gerçekleşmektedir. Farklı yollarla insan vücuduna giren mikroplastiklerin sağlık üzerine oluşturduğu riskler, hala tam olarak bir netlik kazanamamıştır. Özellikle insanların mikroplastiklerle kontamine olmuş su kaynakları ve gıdaları tüketmeleri sonucu vücuda çoklu mikroplastik alımının gerçekleşmesi muhtemeldir. Su kaynakları ve suda yaşayan canlılarda mikroplastik varlığının belirlenmesi ile ilgili çok sayıda çalışma yapılmıştır. Gıda maddelerinde yapılan sınırlı sayıdaki çalışma ise gıdaların da mikroplastikler içerebileceğini göstermiştir. Gıda maddelerinde mikroplastiklerin bulunuşu; hammadde, gıda üretim aşamaları, ambalajlamada kullanılan plastikler veya havadan kaynaklanabilmektedir. Bu derlemede, mikroplastiklerin oluşumu, yiyecek ve içecekler yoluyla insanlara geçişi ve çevre ve insan sağlığı üzerine etkileri üzerine yapılmış çalışmaların irdelenmesi amaçlanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Mikroplastikler
• ekosistem
• sağlık

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