Making meals without microplastics: Tips for safer cutting boards
Depending on the type of cutting board you use, your home-cooked meals could be contaminated with an unlikely ingredient – microplastics – according to a recent study. For the research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Ecotoxicology and Public Health, scientists tested contamination by cutting carrots on two types of plastic cutting boards, one made with polypropylene and the other with polyethylene. Their goal was to estimate the total per-person annual exposure to microplastics from using the boards. They measured as many as 1,114 microplastic particles – pieces of plastic less than five millimeters long – each time the board was used to cut carrots. The researchers, led by scientists from the University of North Dakota, also found that cutting carrots on a plastic board can generate as much as 15 particles of microplastics per cut, or about 50 grams per year – roughly equivalent to the weight of ten plastic credit cards. The amounts vary, depending on the cutting style of...
