Dangerous viruses live in water by squeezing microplastics

Researchers have found that dangerous viruses can survive for up to three days in fresh water by attaching to plastic particles that can then be swallowed by showering.

Enteroviruses, such as rotaviruses that cause stomach upset and diarrhea, and noroviruses that cause winter vomiting, have been shown to survive in water by attaching to small particles of microplastic. Researchers at the University of Stirling have found that the virus is still contagious and can pose a health risk Watchman.

Mr Richard Quilliam He led the research project and according to him, the researchers found that viruses can stick to microplastics and allow them to survive in water for up to three days, and possibly longer than that.

The virus is still contagious

Previous research was conducted in sterile environments, and this, according to Richard Quilliam, is the first study of how viruses behave in the natural environment, but the researchers used standard laboratory methods to determine whether viruses on plastic particles in water are infectious.

“We weren’t sure how well the virus would survive by ‘lifting’ plastic into the environment, but they survive and remain infectious,” Richard Quilliam told the Guardian.

Three days is enough

in The study was published in the journal Environmental Pollution The researchers concluded that microplastics were able to transfer infectious agents.

Richard Quilliam explains that three days, as long as the virus is found to be contagious on plastic particles, is long enough to have time to travel from wastewater treatment plants to a public beach. It further explains that wastewater treatment plants cannot capture microplastics.

Microplastics can be easily swallowed

He told The Guardian: “Although the sewage treatment plant is doing everything it can to treat the sewage, the water that is released still contains microplastic particles, which are then carried downstream, downstream and end up. It’s on the beach.”

Microplastic particles are so small that they can be easily swallowed by people who swim and bathe.

“Sometimes they are washed ashore as colored lens-sized discs called nurdles that kids can pick up and put in their mouths. It doesn’t take a lot of virus particles to make you sick,” Richard Quilliam tells the Guardian.

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