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NEWS 11
Plastics everywhere
Microplastics permeate the globe from the oceans' depths to the highest mountaintop —and our bodies.
What are microplastics?
They're tiny shreds of plastic found in
our air, water, and soil, ranging from
5 mm—about the size of a grain of
rice —to less than a micron. Human
beings have produced more than 8 bil-
lion metric tons of plastic since the
1950s, less than 10 percent of which
has been recycled. As a result, phenom-
enal amounts of plastic waste fill our
rivers, oceans, and shorelines. Plastic
doesn't biodegrade over time —it just
breaks down into ever -smaller particles.
In addition to bottles, utensils, straws,
and other single -use plastics, sources
include car tires, cigarette butts, packag-
ing, fishing nets, and polyester fabrics,
which collectively have shed trillions
of microfibers. Since scientists first
became concerned about microplastics a few decades ago, they've
been stunned to learn these tiny particles quite literally blanket the
globe. They've been found in Arctic snow, in soil samples from
Swiss nature reserves, on Mount Everest, and in the Pacific Ocean's
Mariana Trench-7 miles below the surface. "Nowhere —no mat-
ter how remote —is immune," said Alan Jamieson, a Newcastle
University scientist who has found plastic fibers in the stomachs of
deepwater sea creatures. Microplastics are also increasingly found
in our bodies.
Where in our bodies?
A pair of studies unveiled in March and April found microscopic
particles in subjects' blood and deep in their lungs. In the blood
study, a team of Dutch scientists found plastics —including those
used to make beverage bottles and packaging —in samples from
17 out of 22 healthy blood donors. In the lung study, research-
ers from the U.K.'s Hull York
Medical School took 13 lung
samples from surgical patients
and found microplastics in
11 of them, including samples
from deep in the lower lungs.
Microplastics have been found
in stool samples and in the
placentas of unborn babies.
That latter finding was "very
worrying," said Elizabeth Salter
Green of Chem Trust, a U.K.
charity focused on chemical
harm. "Babies are being born
pre -polluted."
Why is plastic in people?
We eat, drink, and breathe it.
Trace amounts of plastic have
made their way into the food
chain; plastic also directly leeches
into food from packaging and
containers. A 2019 analysis by
the World Wildlife Fund esti-
mated that people consume up to
a" 5 grams of plastic a week —about
Microplastics: We eat, drink, and breathe them.
the same amount of plastic in a credit
card. Microplastics have been found
in shellfish, salt, beer, fresh fruit, and
especially drinking water. A global study
in 2017 found plastic fibers in 83 per-
cent of tap -water samples —and bottled
water is far worse. British researchers
also have found that bottle-fed babies
swallow daily millions of microplastic
particles shed into milk from plastic
bottles, an amount that one researcher
said left him "absolutely gobsmacked."
We also breathe in plastic in microfibers
that float invisibly in the air, many shed
by clothing, fabric, and other textiles. A
2020 study found that 11 national parks
and protected lands in the American
West were showered every year by more
than 1,000 metric tons of microplastic
particles —the equivalent of 300'million pulverized plastic bottles.
How harmful is this?
That's the key question, and the short answer is, we don't know.
Now that scientists have found microplastics in lungs and blood,
said Laura Sadofsky of Hull York Medical School, "The next step
is, so what? Does it matter?" The research is in its infancy. Studies
have found that plastics contain chemicals that can act as "endo-
crine disruptors," meaning they can affect and even mimic hor-
mones; in theory, this means microplastics in the body may cause
cancer, reproductive disorders, chronic inflammation, autoimmune
diseases, obesity, and neurological impairment in developing
fetuses and children. The plastics industry argues that its products
are largely inert in the body and are shed in wastes. But many
experts are inclined to agree with Trinity College Dublin environ-
mental engineer Dunzhu Li, who says, "I think it's fair to say the
potential risk might be high."
The dirty secret of plastic recycling
Americans worried about plastic pollution might feel
they're making a difference when they separate their
bottles and takeout containers for recycling —but those
efforts may not mean much. Only a small fraction of
plastic waste is repurposed, and that amount is drop-
ping even as plastic production climbs. Last year, the
U.S.s plastic recycling rate dipped below 6 percent,
down from a peak of 9.5 percent in 2014, according to a
new report by the groups Beyond Plastic andThe Last
Beach Cleanup.The rate dropped after China stopped
buying U.S. plastic wastes in 2017 Environmentalists
say the plastics industry has sold the public on the illu-
sion that plastic is recyclable, when in fact the process
is prohibitively expensive, and -few U.S. facilities have
the capacity to do it. Most of the plastic set aside for
recycling winds up in landfills or is burned. Accusing
petrochemical companies of "a half -century campaign of
deception" last month California Attorney General Rob
Bonta opened an investigation into their role in mislead-
ing consumers.The plastics industry "must stop lying
to the public about plastics recycling;' said Judith Enck
of Beyond Plastics. "It does not work, it never will work,
and no amount of false advertising will change that"
What can be done?
We need to cut our prodigious
consumption of single -use plastic
And keep what we do use out of the
environment. In March, representa-
tives of 175 nations agreed to start
work on a global treaty to cut plastic
pollution, designed to be in place by
2024. Its aims include cutting plastic
use, boosting recycling, and cleaning
up waste. In the U.S., California just
became the first state to embark on
an ambitious plan to curb micro -
plastics, in part by cutting single -use
plastics. But those trying to find solu-
tions are swimming against a strong,
microplastic-filled tide: Global plastic
consumption is expected to double
over the next 20 years, according
to the World Economic Forum. If
there's no change in consumption
trends, the group says, by 2050 there
could be more plastic in the ocean
pound for pound than fish.
THE WEEK May 20, 2022