|
|
The world is covered in microplastic, from 27,690 feet up Mount Everest to seven miles deep in the ocean at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
You’re covered, too, inside and out.
A synthetic jacket weighing two pounds sheds 400 microplastic fibers every 20 minutes that you’re wearing it, according to a 2020 study.
Also, as we reported in “Tap Water Shields Against Microplastics” (2 Nov 2021), the typical North American ingests about 100,000 microscopic bits of plastic every year, especially people who drink from plastic bottles.
What does that mean?
To answer that, scientists at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona turned to the trusty fruit fly, which shares a large number of disease susceptibilities with humans.
They fed microparticles of polystyrene—a common plastic used to make containers—to the flies, then used an electron microscope to watch what happened.
The particles were able to breach the intestinal wall and make their way to the bloodstream.
The flies didn’t react as if the granules were toxic.
However, the particles distorted the way genes respond to stress and to physical damage to the intestinal lining that keeps alien materials from crossing into the bloodstream.
The researchers also found damage to DNA.
The microplastics were especially good at breaking down biological barriers and producing “toxicological effects,” the biologists noted.
TRENDPOST: Study after study has shown that disposable coffee cups and plastic beverage bottles shed particles into the liquids they contain.
Other research has shown that particles as large as 20 micrometers— about a third the thickness of a typical human hair—can be found floating in air and can be inhaled and enter the body through the lungs.
Microscopic plastic nuggets have been linked to aneurysms in fish, mental abnormalities in hermit crabs, and swimming problems in shrimp.
One scientist compared the plastic problem to an overflowing bath tub.
When you walk into the bathroom and see the mess, he said, the first thing you do isn’t to grab a mop and a bucket; the first thing you do is turn off the tap.
Scientists around the world are working to develop plastics from materials that will biodegrade to harmless components. Until those products reach store shelves, the tub will keep overflowing.