Paris: From the depth of the sea to the top of the mountain, humans have been scattered by this planet with small plastic broken pieces. We have even absorbed this microplastic into our body – with uncertain implications.
Pictures of plastic pollution become familiar: Kuras die limply with shopping bags, water bottles that are washed on the beach, or “Pacific Garbage Patch” which is terrible from floating detritus.
Millions of plastic tons are produced every year, most of the fossil fuels, enter the environment and decrease into smaller and smaller pieces.
“We did not imagine 10 years ago that there might be so many small microplastics, not visible to the naked eye, and that they were everywhere around us,” said Jean-Francois Ghiglione, a researcher at the microbial oceanography laboratory in France.
“And we could not yet envisage finding them in the human body”.
Now scientific studies are increasingly detecting microplastics in some human organs — including “the lungs, spleen, kidneys, and even the placenta,” Ghiglione told AFP.
It may not come as much of a shock that we breathe in these particles present in the air, in particular microfibres from synthetic clothing.
“We know that there’s microplastics in the air, we know it’s all around us,” said Laura Sadofsky, from the Hull York Medical School in the UK.
Her team found polypropylene and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) in lung tissue, identifying fibres from synthetic fabrics.
“The surprise for us was how deep it got into the lungs and the size of those particles,” she told AFP.
In March, another study reported the first traces of PET found in the blood.
Given the small sample of volunteers, some scientists say it is too early to draw conclusions, but there are concerns that if plastics are in the bloodstream they could be transported to all organs.
Breathing in plastics for years
In 2021, researchers found microplastic both in the placental tissue of the mother and fetus, stating “great concerns” of the consequences that might occur in fetal development.
But concern is not the same as the proven risk.
“If you ask a scientist if there is a negative effect, he will say ‘I don’t know’,” said Bart Koelmans, professor in the Aquatic Ecology and water quality at Wageningen University.
“This has the potential to be a big problem, but we do not have scientific evidence to positively confirm what the effect is, if any.”
One hypothesis is that microplastic can be responsible for certain syndromes that weaken human health.
While new scientists identify their presence in the body, there is a possibility that humans have eaten, drinking and breathing plastic for years.
In 2019, a surprise report by the WWF Environmental Agency estimates that people swallow and inhale up to five grams of plastic per week – enough to make credit cards.
Koelmans, who competed for the methodology and results of the study, had calculated the number closer to a salt.
“In a lifetime, a salt per week is still enough,” he told AFP.
While health studies in humans have not been developed, toxicity in certain animals strengthens concerns.
“Small microplastics that are not visible to the naked eye have a bad effect on all animals that we have learned in the marine environment, or on land,” Ghiglione said.
He added that a series of chemicals found in these ingredients – including dyes, stabilizers, fire resistance – can affect growth, metabolism, blood sugar, blood pressure and even reproduction.
Researchers said there must be a “prevention” approach, urged consumers to reduce the number of plastic package products they bought, especially bottles.
Earlier this year, the United Nations began a process to develop an international binding agreement to overcome the scourge of global plastic.
He has warned that the world is facing a pollution crisis to be in accordance with biodiversity and climate crisis.
While the health implications of plastic are unknown, scientists know the impact of indoor and outdoor air pollution, the experts of the commission in pollution and health are estimated to cause 6.7 million people to suffer early death in 2019.
Around 460 million tons of plastic used in 2019, twice as much as 20 years earlier. Less than 10 percent recycled.
Annual production of fossil fuel -based plastic is determined to be 1.2 billion tons of the top of 2060, with waste exceeding one billion tons, the organization for economic cooperation and development said last month.
“People can’t stop breathing, so even if you change your eating habits, you will still breathe it,” Koelmans said.
“They are everywhere.”