Microplastics disrupt lungs and blood
The most annoying kind of plastic is the kind you can’t see: microplastics and nanoplastics. These last pieces of plastic can even penetrate body cells with nasty consequences.
Contents
What are microplastics?
In general, pieces of plastic from a micrometer to 5 mm are classified as microplastics. From plastic objects, microscopic pieces of plastic constantly flake off. Also, litter that ends up in the ocean, for example, breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.
This ensures that we are snowed under by more and more microplastics. This has unpleasant consequences, because these pieces can become so small that they can even penetrate body cells. And as research shows that this has rather unpleasant consequences for body cells.
How many microplastics are there in our environment?
We are surrounded by plastic and therefore more and more microplastics are inevitably released. And they’re popping up in more and more places where we don’t want to see them like in the lungs of surgery patients.
The particles also showed up in blood. A nasty surprise, because that means that the particles can enter our bodies. It is estimated that we ingest at least 500 particles per day or, in other words, 5 g per week.
Nanoplastics
Nanoplastics are plastic particles with a size of a nanometer to 1 micrometer. So much smaller than microplastics. This size means that they can penetrate body cells. Our body cells are surrounded by a layer of fat, into which a fatty (nonpolar) plastic can easily penetrate. It is only now that research is being conducted into the consequences for our health.
In fish, the nanoplastics turned out to lead to things like brain damage. They accumulate in the brain. Damage was also caused elsewhere in the fish’s body, according to the renowned scientific journal Nature. The researchers suspect that this may also be the case in humans. Biochemically, we are not very different from fish.
How do you ensure that you do not ingest micro- and nanoplastics?
In short, pretty nasty stuff. It is almost impossible to avoid ingesting microplastics and nanoplastics. This is because these particles have been found all over the world, even in Antarctica. However, it is possible to significantly reduce exposure.
You do this by only wearing clothes made of vegetable fibers, avoiding plastic bottles and plastic packaging. You will also do the rest of the earth a huge favor with that.
