A European team of medical researchers has found that tiny bits of plastic smaller than 0.0001 millimetres are getting into human bodies and adding to the increasing ineffectiveness of many antibiotics.

According to the results of the research published in ‘Scientific Reports’, one of the Nature Stable of journals, these minute particles from plastic bottles and bags “not only impair the effect of the drugs, but could also promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria”.

“Our data show that the interaction of microand nanoplastics with drugs can alter drug absorption, facilitate drug transport to new locations, and increase local antibiotic concentrations, potentially attenuating antibiotic effect, and at the same time, promoting antibiotic resistance,” the team said.