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May 22nd, 2024
Manufacturers collectively produce over 430 million tons of plastic every year. About two thirds of these plastic products are designed for single or short-term use (think water bottles and snack wrappers). However, the lifespan of plastics is incredibly long (450 to 1,000 years for some products), and the material constantly degrades into ever-tinier pieces that can significantly threaten human health. The biological effects of microplastics on the environment and our oceans have been researched for decades, while more recent studies have detected presence of plastics embedded in multiple organs of humans’ bodies, including the blood, lungs, placenta, and breast milk. Microplastics are in our food, including our raw fruits and vegetables, and in our water (both tap and bottled). Testing on more than 250 bottles of water from nine countries found microplastic contamination in 93% of them.
Plastics contain at least 16,000 chemicals across the various products made from them. Over 25% of these chemicals are known to be hazardous to human health and the environment. We are talking highly toxic compounds too like carcinogens, neurotoxins, endocrine disruptors, and chemicals that harm reproduction, like BPAs, phthalates, bisphenols, and so-called “forever chemicals.” Last March, researchers found microplastics in the plaque lining of patients’ arteries who were undergoing tests for carotid artery disease and found such patients to be at a 4.5 times greater risk of experiencing a heart attack, stroke or death than patients without such microplastic contamination. Male and female infertility, cancers, neurodevelopment disorders, heart disease and kidney disease all have been linked to the chemical additives that can be embedded in microplastics as well.
Microplastics enter our bodies from the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. They have been found in dust, cosmetics, seafood, beer, salt, rain, soil and virtually everywhere else. Once inside us, our bodies recognize microplastics as foreign particles – which provokes an inflammatory immune system response to get rid of them, just as the body would fight bacteria or a virus. But the huge difference is that microplastics cannot be destroyed, so they trigger chronic inflammation, which is also associated with many diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and others.
Some ways to try and reduce microplastics exposure include switching from plastic to glass or steel containers, frequent house-cleaning to remove dust, replacing carpet containing plastic-based fibers with wood flooring, or choosing clothes made only of natural fibers. But these are just band-aids at the end of the day, and it is abundantly clear that the only way to truly combat this global health problem is to eliminate or at least drastically reduce current plastic manufacturing in favor of sensible, existing alternatives on a world-wide scale.
