Surrounded by microplastics: the risks and solutions

DEUTSCHE WELLE

Tiny particles of plastic have spread to every corner of the planet — from the to the heights of Mount Everest.

“We find microplastics in just about every animal species that we’ve studied,” Tamara Galloway, professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter in the UK, told DW.

Traces of these stealth pollutants, often invisible to the eye, have infiltrated the guts of seabirds, agricultural crops, human blood and drinking water.

And it turns out we are drinking more plastic than we knew.   

New research this week has revealed there are 100 times more plastic particles in bottled water than previous studies showed.  

The report, published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found an average of over a quarter of a million plastic particles per liter of bottled water, 90% of which were nanoplastics.  

Researchers used new technology to accurately analyse nanoplastics which are smaller than a micron in size — or less than 80 times the width of a human hair. Nanoplastics are believed to be more toxic than larger microplastics as they can more easily enter the human body.

Every year, about — a figure that could triple by 2060.

. The rest is incinerated, goes to landfill or ends up in the environment, where it can take centuries to degrade. But, even then, it never fully disappears. Most discarded plastic splinters into microplastic — tiny fragments that are less than 5 millimeters in diameter.

Microplastics usually start their journey on land, but eventually are . They can come from cosmetics, city dust, road markings, and engineered plastic pellets. But the bulk of the primary microplastics in the world’s oceans are from the laundry of textiles (35%) and the (28%), according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Microplastics in our food, water and air

Once in the environment, , including fish and shellfish, and are consequently also consumed as food by humans.

And it’s not just seafood. Our wastewater also contains microplastics. Research has found that up to 42,000 tons of microplastics are sprayed onto European farmland every year, because sewage sludge containing the pollutants is used in agriculture as fertilizer.

They’re also in food crops. A 2020 study from Italy found apples had the highest level of microplastics among fruits, while carrot was the most contaminated vegetable.

So what does this mean for our health?

Plastic particles are in the air we inhale, the food we eat and . So inevitably, they’re ending up in our bodies. Studies have found microplastic in human blood and breast milk, and it’s been shown to cross the blood brain barrier in mice.

Galloway says it’s long been known that plastic additives such as bisphenol A and phthalates are in people’s systems, but “the surprising thing is that we’re now finding tiny pieces of plastic itself within the human body.”

“What we don’t know is what they’re doing there. We’ve got some ideas, but we haven’t been able to prove any of those things yet.”

There isn’t conclusive data about what impact microplastic exposure is having on human health. It’s a difficult thing to isolate and trace, because we all typically encounter a range of chemicals and substances in our daily lives.