Soal No.128 Literasi Bahasa Inggris
Text 1
The average American may be swallowing a large amount of microplastic particles every year from contaminated foods. The report came from researchers at the University of Victoria in Canada who studied the microplastic content of certain foods. They combined it with dietary guidelines to estimate peoples' plastic consumption. They found the average American could be consuming 52,000 microplastic pieces each year by eating the recommended amounts of food and drink. This figure is slightly lower for women, at 41,000, because of their smaller food intake. Children have estimated annual Intakes of 46,000 and 39,000 microplastic particles.
There is growing concern that plastics in the ocean could be entering the food chain as microscopic particles absorbed by fish and molluscs. Other foods can be contaminated during production and processing or from platic packaging. The study showed that bottled water could also be a significant source of microplastic consumption. An adult drinking only from bottled water may be consuming an additional 75,000 to 127,000 pieces of microplastic each year, according to the research. For comparison, drinking only from tap water leads to just 3,000 to 6,000.
The team emphasises that these figures are only estimates because of limitations in the data. They were not able to include common food sources, such as meat, dairy, cereals, and vegetables in their calculation because their microplastic content is not known. They also point out that it is unclear what effect this exposure to microplastics has on our health.
Text 2
Plastic infant feeding bottles can release up to 16 million pieces of microplastic during each use. Such bottles are routinely exposed to hot water and vigorous shaking when parents are making formula for babies. The researchers at Trinity College Dublin estimated the daily daily exposure of an infant up to 12-months-old ranged from 14,600 to 4.5 million microparticles. Although microplastics are also found elsewhere, such as in bottled water, their levels reported have been in the thousands per liter only. This means babies could be consuming doses thousands of times higher than adults.
The team assessed 10 different baby feeding bottles made from polypropylene. These are typically exposed to temperature of up to 100°C in a cleaning procedure advised by the World Health Organization. For one product, the number of microparticles increased from around one to 55 million particles per liter, when the temperature was increased to 95°C. 'Although is too early to make a policy based on this single study, the results ring an alarm,' according to an ecotoxicologist at Tge University of Southern Denmark.
The study will be pretty concerning for parents. However, frustatingly scientists also do not know what this means toxicologically, beacause there are so few studies on the health impacts of microplastics. Still, the scientists offer advice for parents. Formula should be prepared with hot water that is at 70°C or higher in a non-plastic container. When it has cooled, the formula can be transferred to the plastic bottles.
Based on the information from the two texts, which of the following will most likely happen in the future?