Microplastics: Small Particles, Big Worries, by Madison Haley, our Plastics Program Assistant
We have a challenge for you – next time you’re on a walk, start looking more closely at the ground. Among all the plants and the rocks and the critters, you’ll sometimes see big pieces of litter like soda bottles or food wrappers. But look a little closer next time, and you might start to see more of what are called “microplastics,” or small pieces of plastic that are less than the size of a pencil eraser. Once you start to notice them they’re hard to unsee; small bits of wrappers, degraded styrofoam, little pieces of broken toys or plastics. Do you think all of those little bits will ever be picked up? How could they possibly?
Microplastics are a hot topic right now. You may have seen news articles about all the places they’ve been found: in our bottled water, our food, our blood, and our reproductive organs. Microplastics have found their way into nearly every aspect of our lives, and while some are manufactured intentionally, many are from larger plastic items breaking down. Some of the most significant sources in our environment are from car tires, fibers from washing polyester and nylon clothes, and breakdown from our everyday plastic items like bottles, bags, and other packaging. Plastic can break down so small that it’s now found in every component of the water cycle, including in our clouds, rain, and moisture uptake by plants. From there, they’ve traveled to nearly all corners of the earth – from the deep seafloor to the Arctic. At the Haw River Assembly we’ve collected samples throughout our watershed and, although our methods are preliminary, every single water sample has contained microplastics.
Before we start to panic, it’s important to note that scientists are still trying to understand how these microplastics affect human health. While we are exposed to microplastics daily through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure and they’ve been found in human blood, lungs, stool, placenta, and heart tissue – researchers are still trying to understand how toxic microplastics affect for our bodies. Plastic is traditionally understood to be “chemically inert,” meaning they don’t react easily to our biology, which is why we love plastic so much in the first place. Historically, plastic is what we use to keep ourselves safe – remember how much plastic you used during the pandemic? How much grocery stores use to protect your food? Or how much plastic you see in a doctor’s office? While some of this plastic does contribute to our health and well-being, plastic production and consumption has soared over the last few decades – the average American now discards nearly 300 lbs of plastics a year. Much of this plastic ends up in our environment, with scientists now warning that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans.
All this plastic degrades in our environment and makes its way into our bodies – and while there is still a lot that we don’t know about the health effects of microplastics, researchers are indicating that there is cause for concern. Early research has indicated that microplastics may cause things like oxidative stress, DNA damage, metabolic disorders, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity – although none of these studies have been able to prove direct causal links with human subjects. A handful of studies have shown a correlation between higher concentrations of microplastics in organs and negative health outcomes, including that cirrhotic livers contained more plastic than healthy ones, people with IBD have more plastic in their feces, and those who had microplastics in their blood vessels had higher rates of heart attacks. And while correlation is not the same as causation, there is clear cause for concern.
This is just a quick glimpse into microplastics – we aren’t scientific experts in this field, but we do hope that this blog post makes you more curious and willing to explore ways to make things better. One of the simplest steps to both minimize your exposure and environmental impact of microplastics, is to be more intentional with your own plastic use. This month we’re celebrating “Plastic Free July,” a worldwide initiative to encourage folks to use less plastic in their everyday lives. This can be as basic as purchasing food with less plastic packaging (shop local when you can!), always bringing your reusable grocery bag to the store, buying in bulk, and refusing single use plastics when eating out. All these everyday plastics take centuries to degrate completely, but just seconds to start releasing microplastics.
Improvements won’t happen overnight and large scale impact will require both policy and regulatory changes, but we hope you can join us in making better decisions every day to protect both ourselves and our ecosystems.
