It’s often said that you are what you eat. But what about what you drink? If you drink hot tea or coffee from plastic cups, you could be swallowing trillions of bits of plastic so small that 1,000 of them could fit on a human hair. We’ve heard about microplastics. They’re small pieces of plastic, typically smaller than a few millimeters, found in just about every part of the world, from mountain tops to deep into the ocean. Even in human blood. Nanoplastics are plastic fragments small than a few micrometers. The Environmental Science and Technology journal recently published a study that tested how many nanoplastics are released when exposed to water. They focused on food-grade nylon bags and coffee cups, exposing them to water at increasing temperatures and found they released more nanoplastics as the water warmed. Just another reason to bring your own reusable stainless steel or ceramic coffee cup to your favorite coffee shop.

Common Plastic Items Shed Trillions of Nanoparticles When Exposed to Hot Water