How we swallow 114 pieces of plastic with every meal: Household dust containing soft furnishings and synthetic fabrics fall onto dinner plates before being consumed, by Victoria Allen.

The plastic, which can come from soft furnishings and synthetic fabrics, gets into household dust which falls on plates and is consumed.

UK scientists made the discovery after putting Petri dishes containing sticky dust traps on the table next to dinner plates in three homes at meal times.

Up to 14 pieces of plastic were found in the Petri dishes at the end of a 20-minute meal – the equivalent of 114 plastic fibres falling on the average dinner plate given their much larger size. …

Experts warn that ingesting plastic particles can damage lungs, poison kidneys and interfere with hormones.