Plastics are washing up on shorelines and waterways around the globe, and the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a swirling plastic galaxy as big as the state of Texas. Now, scientists are finding small bits of plastic in our brains and bodies. The plastic enters our bodies through ingestion, inhalation, and possibly even through skin contact. As you can imagine, this is not a healthy development. In the 1980s, scientists linked airborne pollution, specifically sulfur dioxide and other chemicals, to infertility in birds. Here we are 40 years later, and plastic is having the same effect on humans. Mother Nature has a way of getting back at us for polluting her land and water.
So far, no one has developed a practical and effective method for removing plastic from the body, although the body does remove some plastic through the digestive system. So the best response we can make to this problem is to keep plastic out of our environment. Not all the plastic floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is small enough to enter the body through touch, breathing, or ingestion. But the larger pieces inevitably decompose into smaller particles that can.
An article in Harvard Medicine describes the problem.
“We encounter microplastics everywhere: from trash, dust, fabrics, cosmetics, cleaning products, rain, seafood, produce, table salt, and more.”
“Little wonder that microplastics have been detected throughout the human body, including in the blood, saliva, liver, kidneys, and placenta. Investigators are probing how they get into other organs and tissues from the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. Microplastics smaller than 1 micrometer, known as nanoplastics, worry researchers the most because they can infiltrate cells.”
The University of Newcastle analyzed global data on human ingestion of plastic. It found that, on average, we consume up to 2,000 pieces of microplastic every week with our food and water. That’s about equal to the weight of a credit card—every week.
Possible Health Effects
The global production of plastic exceeded 350 million metric tons in 2020. It’s not going away anytime soon. Microplastics ranging from 5 millimeters to 1 nanometer are created during the manufacturing process of products such as makeup and clothing. Other plastic breaks down to the smallest size due to solar exposure, water, and mechanical or chemical reactions.
Plastics are categorized by size, color, polymer type, and other metrics. In a scoping report published in the Journal of Global Health, which evaluated more than 200 separate studies, various microplastics were found in 8 of the 12 human organ systems, including the “Cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, integumentary [skin, nails, hair, and glands], lymphatic, respiratory, reproductive and urinary.” Different plastic materials enter the body through various pathways, and the impact of plastic on the human body depends on its polymer type and other characteristics. For example, Bisphenol E (BPE) and Bisphenol A (BPA) are in some plastics.
BPE and BPA are two of the so-called “forever” chemicals that accumulate over time in the body after being ingested or inhaled and remain, if not forever, then for a very long time. BPE can interfere with the human endocrine system and cross the placenta, potentially affecting fetal development. Microplastics are also linked to an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Microplastics In our Food and Water
California became the first state to begin testing for microplastics in water in 2022, after developing measurement standards based on the best methods used globally. Lake Tahoe and the San Francisco Bay have high concentrations of microplastics. The study is ongoing. Legislation requires that the study results be made public.
The Contra Costa County Water District measured for the presence of the forever chemical, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as recently as 2023, and did not find it in our drinking water. Generally, our water meets or exceeds state and national standards for water quality.
California has banned the use of single-use plastic bags in grocery stores. Most offer biodegradable bags and paper bags, and encourage people to bring their reusable grocery bags. Cities like Oakland and Berkeley are working to ban single-use plastic items in restaurants.
Save the Bay is an organization that is very concerned about microplastics in our seafood and water supplies:
“Plastic pollution doesn’t just litter our shores—it flows through our waterways, our food, and even our bodies. On April 30, Save The Bay’s Political Director Allison Chan joined Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan for a film screening of the documentary We’re All Plastic People Now and a panel discussion on the Bay Area’s environmental, legislative, and community-driven responses to microplastic pollution. The panel also included fellow advocates Andria Ventura, Legislative and Policy Director at Clean Water Action, and Nick Lapis, Director of Advocacy at Californians Against Waste.”
You can watch a recording of the meeting here.
Photo by Martijn Baudoin on Unsplash
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