A study by the Institute for Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies (IDAEA) of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has analyzed the presence of organophosphate plasticizers in 75 samples of different beverages: water, cola-type soft drinks, juices, wine and hot drinks. The results show that, on average, sugary drinks have 100 times more concentration of this type of plasticizer than water, which is the drink that registers the lowest values.
The work, published in the Environment International magazine, has identified that the plasticizers come both from the packaging and from the sugar added to the drinks itself. And they are not only found in drinks sold in plastic. Researchers have found similar concentrations in those sold in glass bottles or cans.
And, in the specific case of water, although the presence of plasticizers is lower than in other beverages, it is higher in the case of tap water than in bottled water, as the lead author of the study explained to La Vanguardia, Ethel Eljarrat.
He assures that some of the results of this investigation have surprised them because they were contrary to the hypotheses with which they began the study: that the presence of these chemical compounds would be greater in beverages packaged in plastic.
Plasticizers are a class of chemical compounds that are added to plastics to give them the desired flexibility and durability. The most recent studies have shown the toxicity of several of the organophosphate plasticizers, including neurological damage, endocrine disruption, cancer and fertility problems.
To find out the influence of the type of container on the origin of these compounds, the researchers analyzed drinks of the same brand but marketed in different types of containers: glass, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and tetra brik.
"Our results show that more than 95% of the beverages have at least one of the 19 organophosphate plasticizers that we studied, which shows the ubiquity of these compounds and our exposure to them in our day-to-day lives," explains Julio Fernández Arribas. , IDAEA researcher and first author of the study.
The highest levels of contamination have been detected in cola-type sugary soft drinks, with an average concentration of 2,876 nanograms per liter (ng/L), and for juices with added sugars (2,965 ng/L), while the lowest levels are have been found in the water samples (20.7 ng/L).
Eljarrat, for his part, points out that "the surprise was that the highest levels were detected in cola drinks, regardless of the brand, and when analyzing different presentations we saw that light or sugar-free drinks had lower levels, so we started to suspect that, beyond the packaging, the added sugar influenced the concentration of these contaminants".
After verifying that the same thing happened in the case of juices (those with added sugar have more plasticizers than natural ones), they decided to analyze samples of sugar and sweeteners "and we saw that sugar has (and in a higher concentration than saccharin) the same compound that we later found at high levels in sugary drinks, 2-ethylhexyldiphenyl phosphate (EHDPP)," whose toxicity is associated with an increased risk of some types of cancer, such as breast and uterus.
Another of the "surprises" that according to Eljarrat the study brought them was to see that the concentrations of organophosphorus plasticizers are similar regardless of the brand and type of container. “The presence of plasticizers in bottles, cans and tetra brik was expected; but the levels in drinks packaged in glass were not foreseeable a priori”, indicates the scientist.
And he explains that later they have discovered that the source of contamination is the plastic coating that the metal plates of the glass bottles have to avoid the contact of the drink with the metal, which releases eight plasticizers, EHDPP being again the majority compound. .
The IDAEA-CSIC study also compared the presence of plasticizers in bottled water and that consumed directly from the tap. "Initially we thought that the levels would be higher in the water samples from plastic bottles, but we found that they were higher in the tap water, and we believe that it has to do with the fact that from the time the water leaves the treatment plant until it reaches the The tap circulates through PVC ducts from which the plasticizers that we have found in the samples are released", details Eljarrat.
The researchers specify that the amounts of plastic contaminants they have found in drinks are well below the safety threshold to be considered harmful in themselves, but they warn that the ingestion of these plasticizers through the drink represents only 10% of the total daily intake. “We must take into account that these plasticizers also reach the human body through other routes of exposure such as food intake and inhalation, because they are in the air, so those who abuse sugary cola drinks may end up overcoming safety doses”, concludes Eljarrat.
