WHO to begin immediate microplastic health review

19 Mar 2018 --- The World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a review off the back of last week’s landmark discovery from New Orb Media of plastic particles in water bottles. The research found that 93 percent of bottles, from eleven leading brands, contained microplastics. The WHO review will attempt to gauge how harmful the levels may be for human health.

In response to the research, a WHO spokesperson told FoodBev that the organization “would review the very scarce available evidence with the objective of identifying evidence gaps, and establishing a research agenda to inform a more thorough risk assessment.”

“For WHO to make an informed risk assessment, we would need to establish that microplastics occur in water at concentrations that would be harmful to human health.”

WorldPackagingOnline reported on the research at the time of its release. The research – conducted at the State University of New York in Fredonia – reported an average of 325 particles per liter, with concentration ranging from zero to more than 10,000 particles in a single bottle. 259 individual bottles from 27 different lots across 11 brands were tested, purchased from 19 locations in 9 countries. 

The study supervisor, Dr. Sherri Mason, Chair of the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, and a leading microplastics research, said: “We found [plastic] in bottle after bottle and brand after brand.”

Molly Bingham, Orb Media CEO, spoke to WorldPackagingOnline about the significance of the research: ”Every single person in the world depends on water to live – we felt it was important to report on what was in bottled water brands. There are individuals who believe that the threat to humanity from microplastics in our environment is second only to that of climate change."

The bottled water industry responded loudly to the research. The responses varied from condemning the study’s methodology as unclear (Danone) or undeveloped (PepsiCo), to pointing out that microplastic particles are found everywhere and may not cause consumers harm (Gerolsteiner). 

New Orb Media were quick to highlight that the human health concerns associated with plastic debris are unclear and that their latest research should encourage a more open debate. They also stressed that less developed nations that depend on PET bottles for clean drinking water should not change their habits based on the experimental findings.

In an arena where there is no standard legislation for limiting microplastics in bottled waters, nor agreed procedures for testing, the UK research laboratory, Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) has weighed in on the steps the bottled water industry can take to asses microplastic levels in products. RSSL routinely provides services to detect sub-visible and sub-micron particles in pharmaceutical products and it is these methods that have been adapted to analyze water. 

“We can quantify microplastic particles in water down to 10 microns and above,” notes Alex Webb, RSSL Microscopy Laboratory Manager. “We can then identify the type of microplastic using a variety of techniques and compare the particles with the reference materials to confirm if they have come from the original bottle.”

Primarily, the topic has attracted cross-sectoral attention and although the findings are headline-grabbing, the WHO review will determine whether or not the levels of microplastic are harmful to human health. WorldPackagingOnline will follow developments on this story closely.

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