A new study has found microplastics in the urine of Cypriot children for the first time, according to findings just published in an international scientific journal. The study was carried out by the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health (CII) at the Cyprus University of Technology (TEPAK), working with researchers from the University of Catania in Italy.
The exploratory study found early evidence that microplastics can appear in the urine of primary school children in Cyprus. This suggests children may be exposed to microplastics in ways that let the particles enter, and move through, their bodies.
With advanced laboratory techniques, the researchers detected very small plastic particles in the urine samples and identified which types of plastic were present. Polyethylene and polypropylene were the types detected most often.
The study also found that the amount of microplastics detected varied from child to child. But only a small number of children took part, and the analysis was mainly descriptive. As a result, the researchers caution that these differences shouldn’t be read as proof of clear distinctions between groups.
The findings are preliminary and need to be interpreted with caution, the researchers said. Larger studies are needed to confirm two things: whether microplastics are consistently present in children’s urine, and how children are exposed to them in the first place. It’s also still unclear whether that exposure could affect children’s health.
