Humans swallow 1 credit card's worth of plastic each week: Study
Humans may be ingesting five grams of plastic each week, the equivalent of a credit card, a study commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature said. The largest source of plastic ingestion is drinking water, with the plastic particles found in bottled, tap, surface and groundwater. The findings are the first to estimate the ingestion of microplastics by humans.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Plastic pollution is so widespread in the environment that you may be ingesting five grams a week, the equivalent of eating a credit card, a study commissioned by the environmental charity WWF International said.
The study by Australia’s University of Newcastle said the largest source of plastic ingestion was drinking water, but another major source was shellfish, which tended to be eaten whole so the plastic in their digestive system was consumed too.
“Since 2000, the world has produced as much plastic as all the preceding years combined, a third of which is leaked into nature,” the report said.
The average person could be consuming 1,769 particles of plastic every week from water alone, it said.
 The amount of plastic pollution varies by location, but nowhere is untouched, said the report, which was based on the conclusions of 52 other studies.
 In the United States, 94.4% of tap water samples contained plastic fibers, with an average of 9.6 fibers per liter. European water was less polluted, with fibers showing up in only 72.2% of water samples, and only 3.8 fibers per liter.
