Single-use plastics have infiltrated our lives through everyday products and packaging, and plastic pollution has reached even the most remote places on our beloved planet. There isn’t a place on Earth untouched by plastic and with production growing, we will continue to see even more significant consequences to our climate, health, and communities.
One impact of plastics that has made headlines in recent years is microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic no larger than 5 millimeters or the size of an eraser on a pencil. Microplastics have been found melting out of Arctic sea ice, washing up on the world’s most isolated coastlines, drifting to the deepest part of the ocean, appearing in the most remote mountain air, and even falling with the rain in our national parks. It’s even been found in our food, including honey, salt, water, and beer.
In short, microplastics are everywhere.
WHERE DO MICROPLASTICS COME FROM?
We know that plastic doesn’t fully biodegrade; instead it breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces that act as tiny pollutants. Single-use plastic bags and utensils, plastic bottles, and foam foodware containers are just a few examples of the primary types of plastic items that contribute to the existence of microplastics.
Another source are plastic pellets or “nurdles.” These tiny, pea-sized pellets are the building blocks of most plastic products. They are also unregulated and prone to spills as they are shipped around the country and the world to be melted and molded into new plastic items.
Microplastics can also come from other sources, like vehicle tires, paint, personal care products, and textiles.
No matter the source, one thing is clear; microplastics pose a threat to the environment and can make their way into our bodies, harming us too.
HOW DO MICROPLASTICS IMPACT HUMAN HEALTH?
Did you know that approximately 16,000 chemicals are used to make plastic?
The process to make plastic items includes transforming fossil fuels through a series of chemical reactions, and those chemicals often remain in the final product — like plastic-foam coffee cups — and ultimately end up in our bodies.
A quarter of those chemicals are known to be hazardous to human health, and another 10,000 of them have never been tested for human safety. The worst part? The plastic industry doesn’t disclose all the chemicals used, so the public is kept in the dark about some of the risks posed by production and use of this material.
While there is growing evidence about chemicals and their impact on human health, researchers have only recently discovered microplastic particles in our bodies. These particles have now been found in human breast milk, placenta, blood, and even our lungs. In fact, scientists conservatively estimate that people consume, on average, hundreds of thousands of microplastics particles per year.
Scientists are hard at work to uncover the impacts of microplastic particles and are learning more each day.
HOW DO WE TACKLE THIS ISSUE?
To make progress and effectively tackle microplastics — and the broader plastic pollution crisis — companies must reduce the production and use of unnecessary single-use plastic and develop systems that refill and reuse packaging and products. Government policies are needed to ensure that companies act.
Many local and state governments are leading the way to tackle the plastic pollution crisis. So far 15 states and more than 400 counties and cities, including the cities of Los Angeles and New York City, have passed policies to curb single-use plastic.
Now, the issue is getting attention at the national level. Recently, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress have introduced the Microplastics Safety Act. If passed, the act would direct the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct a study and report on findings to outline human exposure to microplastics from food and water and how this exposure can impact human health.
While we’re learning more every day, our elected officials must do more. You can get involved by joining Oceana to demand our leaders address the dangers of microplastics.
