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MELANIE IN CONNECTICUT ASKS:
What’s the deal with microplastics? I keep hearing about them. Should my family avoid microplastic—and how can we?
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MOM DETECTIVE ANSWERS:
Oh, Melanie. I wish I had a black and white answer for you, but I don’t. Microplastics are everywhere, and no, you can’t avoid them. But it’s still important to know about them—what they are, where they come from, what their health impacts are. Also, there are solid ways for you and your family to reduce exposure to microplastics—and these are steps well worth taking.
What are microplastics?
Basically microplastics are tiny particles of different kinds of plastic that come from many sources. Some are made small on purpose from the start. Think pellets that will be used to make bigger plastic items or microbeads used in cosmetics like face scrubs or even toothpaste (yuck). Microplastics can also come from larger pieces of plastic, like bottles, which break down into tiny bits when exposed to the elements over time: sun, wind, and water can all degrade plastic. Other sources of microplastics are shedding plastic furniture, plastic carpets and rugs, clothing (especially fibers like nylon and polyester), and things like fishing nets. But truly, microplastics can come from anything plastic, including food wrapping and even synthetic tires as they spin around on roadways. To officially be defined as a microplastic, the particles must range in size from 5 millimeters, which the Environmental Protection Agency describes as “about the size of a pencil eraser,” to 1 nanometer. For comparison, EPA notes a strand of human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide. Some of these little bits aren’t even visible.
Where have microplastics been found?
The more pertinent question unfortunately is, Where haven’t microplastics been found? EPA says, “Microplastics have been found in every ecosystem on the planet, from the Antarctic tundra to tropical coral reefs, and have been found in food, beverages, and human and animal tissue.” More and more where-are-microplastics-found studies seem to be coming out regularly, but here are ten, um, interesting spots researchers have already found microplastics:
- Baby poop, including meconium
- Human placentas
- Plastic baby bottles (hot liquids, including baby formula, erodes plastic)
- Synthetic fabrics and textiles (this includes fleece, stretchy sportswear, and toys)
- Indoor air
- Aquatic life (including the fish humans eat)
- Dust (our stuff-filled modern lives shed a lot of microplastics)
- Water—from tropical waters to freshwater to polar ice to the water we drink
- Beaches
- Testicles
- Brain
Are microplastics bad for health?
I would like to say, Obviously! But let’s be methodical here. Scientists aren’t hasty—and for good reason. Overall, research on the health impacts of microplastics is in its infancy. More research is needed, and so the verdict is still out. As the United Nations Development Programme puts it, “There are major knowledge gaps in scientific understanding of the impact of microplastics and the weight of the current evidence is low to conclude the casualty of adverse effects.”
There are just a lot of complicated factors to consider when trying to do research on the health impacts of microplastics: the kind of plastic it comes from, different particle sizes, many different places microplastics show up, amounts that accumulate in a body, and so on. It takes time to develop and standardize collection, extraction, quantification, and identification methods for micro- and nanoplastics to improve reliability, consistency, and comparability across studies, says EPA.
That said, there have been some studies on microplastics and human health. One new study found people with microplastics in plaque clogging their neck arteries (!) were more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those with no microplastics. And, of course, there’s a lot of well-established science regarding plastic and human health. Spoiler alert: it’s not great. Some plastics are considered safer for human health than others. The conscious consumer in me wants to extrapolate that if a plastic that contains, say, hormone-disrupting chemicals is unsafe for human health in macro format, it for sure has to be bad in micro format. But this is apparently unscientific of me. I am not allowed to conclude this—yet—until the research on the adverse effects of microplastics in humans is done.
The good news is that very smart people are working on it! There’s even a new research center in Rochester that will exclusively study the lifecycle of microplastics, including human exposure and health impacts, plus how climate change could intensify the environmental and health threats posed by microplastics. So cool, so critical.
What should people do about microplastics?
When scientific evidence about an environmental or human health hazard is uncertain and still developing, I always fall back on the precautionary principle. I choose to take precautionary measures about microplastics because of what’s already known about plastic and health. The stakes are high. Precaution first and foremost means reducing the amount of plastic in my—and your—life.
Precaution is pretty simple. Just follow the advice of Dr. Leo Transande, one of the authors of the microplastic poop study: “The safe and simple steps are the same as I advise in general—avoiding using plastic when feasible—particularly, containers with recycling numbers 3, 6 and 7, and avoiding machine dishwashing and microwaving plastic. The health effects of the molecules that are directly absorbed are much better understood than the microplastics, and we need to focus on a method to easily measure exposure to MPs in people and examine effects.”
To further reduce exposure to microplastics you can:
- Drink hot liquids and eat soup from glass or safe ceramics, not plastic containers.
- Choose to wear natural fibers like cotton instead of fleece and synthetic fabrics. (I regret the many years I spent in yoga pants!)
- Store food in glass.
- Minimize dust at home by vacuuming often with a HEPA filter and wet wiping surfaces—this is especially important if you have a crawling, hand-sucking baby.
Melanie, you can also join Moms Clean Air Force to demand that our elected officials do something about microplastics—the tiniest bits of the enormous issue of petrochemical pollution. Families should not have to be microplastic guinea pigs until the research rolls in. We need protection now.
Learn more about Moms’ work on petrochemical pollution.
Tell Congress: Support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act