Since the 1950s, plastic has become more and more a part of our lives. Starting off with Bakelite, plastic has become an intrinsic part of our everyday, with many of the items we interact with every minute containing at least some plastic element.

But as our understanding of this synthetic product has become deeper, scientists and researchers have warned that plastic could be having a detrimental impact to our health.

Not only is our over reliance on plastic – especially single-use plastics – ravaging our environment, with 99.9% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comprising of plastic, microplastics are swarming our waterways and turning up in seafood and our own bodies as a result.

And according to researchers in China, our continued use of plastic in food packaging could be having an even more sinister effect on our bodies.

Now, it’s no secret that certain chemicals used in plastic production could contribute to the development of some cancers, but there are other health conditions that might be related to our overuse of plastics too.

And surprisingly, according to this research – which was recently published in the academic journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety – takeaway food containers could be damaging the health of your heart.

To come to this conclusion, the research team stored boiled water in plastic takeout containers. They then gave this water to rats in the lab over the course of three months, and studied the effects on their bodies. And the results were alarming, with inflammation throughout the body and damage to tissue in the heart as a result.

Why? Because the microplastics entered the hot liquid and stayed there as it cooled, imperceptibly leeching into the water that the rats consumed and remaining in their bodies thereafter. The extensive damage to the microbiome of the rats’ guts clearly evidenced the damage that exposure to food stored in these containers could potentially cause to the body of any creature consuming it.

And alarmingly, there was very little difference between the control groups.

Even though the water that different groups of rats consumed over the course of the study – with different rat groups consuming water that had been in the containers for one, five, and fifteen minutes – the plastics seemed to wreak havoc on the rats’ bodies regardless, as the research team explained in the paper:

“The data revealed that high-frequency exposure to plastics is significantly associated with an increased risk of congestive heart failure.

The study shows plastic exposure as a significant risk factor regardless of duration. It leads to changes in myocardial tissue, gut microbiota, and metabolites.”

Given that these changes are all linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the results are very concerning.

Though the short duration of the study meant that none of the rats developed heart disease while they were being observed, the risk factors were plain to see, and provide sufficient evidence to warrant limiting your exposure to these kinds of plastics.

Because it doesn’t seem to matter how short a time period food is stored in these containers for – even just a few moments is enough for microplastics to invade.

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