Must read: Plastic and Health

Singapore is well known to be a food hub with a diverse range of food options and strong takeaway (in local slang "dabao") culture. Single-use plastics are mostly used for takeaway meals here in Singapore.

Beyond the simple understanding known to the public that single-use plastic is generally harmful to the environment, many do not know that plastics can flake off even smaller plastics (i.e. micro/nanoplastics). More of these tiny plastics have been found to flake off under higher temperatures and exposure times [1]. Even fewer know about the large accumulation of academic research over the past decade regarding the possible health risks of microplastics and the chemicals they leach into food. The potential health risks frequently cited are, amongst others, cancer, infertility, damage to the hormonal system, impeding the neurological development of children [2].

While it is true that our body generally has the capability to remove microplastics from our body [3]. The main concern is that plastic waste pollution is worsening [4] and more microplastics would presumably be making their way up the food chain into our body. Research has already discovered an all-time high of microplastic ingestion and inhalation, and projected an accumulation of microplastics in human bodies [5].

Other countries such as the United States have highlighted this and used potential health risks as an argument to legislate against the use of single-use plastic6. Until it is more firmly decided in the medical community - in the unlikely scenario - that microplastics and the chemicals they leach do not pose health risks to humans, the public should be warned to err on the side of caution and swap the use of single-use plastics with glass/platinum silicone/stainless steel for takeaway of food.

Sources:

[1] Selen Akbulut, Perihan Kubra Akman, Fatih Tornuk, and Hasan Yetim, “Microplastic Release from Single-Use Plastic Beverage Cups” (2024) 13(10) Foods 5 at 3; Guoqiang Liu, Jian Wang, Mengjie Wang, Rongrong Ying, Xuwei Li, Zhewei Hu, and Ya Zhang, “Disposable plastic materials release microplastics and harmful substances in hot water” (2022) 818 Science of The Total Environment 151685 at 10

[2] Aris Ismanto, Tony Hadibarata, Risky Ayu Kristanti, Muhammad Zainuri, Denny Nugroho Sugianto, Wulan Kusumastuti, and Malya Asoka Anindita, “Microplastics in ecological system: Their prevalence, health effects, and remediation” (2024) 22 Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 8 at 1; Andrew Daltry, Lea Merone, and Peter Tait, “Plastic pollution: why is it a public health problem?” (2021) 45(6) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 536 at 2

[3] Pengfei Wu, Siyi Lin, Guodong Cao, Jiabin Wu, Hangbiao Jin, Chen Wang, Ming Hung Wong, Zhu Yang, and Zongwei Cai, “Absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity of microplastics in the human body and health implications” (2022) 437 Journal of Hazardous Materials 129361 at 10; Kurunthachalam Kannan, and Krishnamoorthi Vimalkumar, “A Review of Human Exposure to Microplastics and Insights Into Microplastics as Obesogens” (2021) 12 Frontiers in Endocrinology 10 at 4.

[4] Md. Golam Kibria, Nahid Imtiaz Masuk, Rafat Safayet, Huy Quoc Nguyen, and Monjur Mourshed, “Plastic Waste: Challenges and Opportunities to Mitigate Pollution and Effective Management” (2023) 17 International Journal of Environmental Research 14 at 4; OECD, “Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short, says OECD” at (22 February 2022), in 1

[5] Xiang Zhao and Fengqi You, “Microplastic Human Dietary Uptake from 1990 to 2018 Grew across 109 Major Developing and Industrialized Countries but Can Be Halved by Plastic Debris Removal” (2024) 58(20) Environmental Science & Technology 8716 at 2; Nur Hazimah Mohamed Nor, Merel Kooi, Noël J. Diepens, and Albert A. Koelmans, “Lifetime Accumulation of Microplastic in Children and Adults” (2021) 55(8) Environmental Science & Technology 5090 at 2

[6] Rachel M. Sorensen, Rameshwar S. Kanwar, and Boris Jovanovi, “Past, present, and possible future policies on plastic use in the United States, particularly microplastics and nanoplastics: A review” (2022) 19(2) Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 480 at 3