By adhering to microplastics, viruses can survive in fresh water for three days, according to a study.

According to studies, viruses can travel on plastic and stay alive in fresh water for around three days. The experts discovered that the viruses that cause diarrhoea or stomach upsets can persist in water by interacting with microplastics. Rotavirus, for example, is still contagious and dangerous to one’s health. The observations were made by University of Stirling researchers. According to Prof. Richard Quilliam, chief researcher for the project at Stirling University, ‘we discovered that viruses can adhere to microplastics and that permits them to stay in the water for three days, potentially longer.’

The standard laboratory methods were used to know whether the viruses found on microplastics in water are infectious. ‘We weren’t sure how well viruses could survive by ‘hitchhiking’ on plastics in the environment, but they do survive and they do remain infectious,’ Quilliam said.

The study is a component of a £1.85 million project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and has been published in the journal ‘Environmental Pollution.’ According to the study, viruses might spread in the environment thanks to microplastics.

‘Being infectious in the environment for three days, that’s long enough to get from the wastewater treatment works to the public beach,’ Quilliam said.

‘Even if a wastewater treatment plant is doing everything it can to clean sewage waste, the water discharged still has microplastics in it, which are then transported down the river, into the estuary and wind up on the beach,’ Quilliam added.

‘Sometimes they wash up on the beach as lentil-sized, brightly coloured pellets called nurdles that children might pick up and put in their mouths. It doesn’t take many virus particles to make you sick,’ Quilliam said.

‘Viruses can also bind to natural surfaces in the environment, but plastic pollution lasts a lot longer than those materials,’ said Quilliam.