Plastic is Personal: How Plastic is affecting our health
It’s official, plastic is in our bloodstreams. We eat around 5 grams every week!
In 2020, scientists found traces of plastic particles in market fruits and vegetables and in 2022, plastic was confirmed to be present in human blood. But how did it get there? And what does this mean for our health?
Plastic’s Pathway into the Mind, Body and Soul
It all starts when plastic gets tossed into the environment and left there. But unlike organic litter, plastic doesn’t decay. The problem is, microorganisms in the environment cannot degrade plastic like they can natural materials, and as a result it lingers wherever it lands. It persists long enough that it gets broken down by environmental weathering, getting smaller and smaller, until it eventually becomes microscopic microplastic. Some of these fragments can be as small as a nanometer (about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair) and are aptly named nanoplastics. Due to their miniscule dimensions, micro and nanoplastics can leach into water supplies, get absorbed by plants through their root systems, and ultimately get eaten by animals (including humans). They can even be thrown up into the air that we breathe. Once in the lungs or digestive tract, microplastics are small enough to get absorbed into the bloodstream; here they have access to every other part of the body…
But before we get onto the biological implications of microplastics, it’s important to note that the internal presence of plastic is still a relatively new discovery, and as a result, research is yet to pinpoint what it means for our health. That’s not to say that science is completely in the dark, but rather, there are layers to the story that haven’t yet come to light. What we do know is that the studies we have aren't particularly comforting.
Image credit: News-medical.net
What is Plastic Doing to Our Bodies?
To understand the full scale of the problem, it is important to zoom into the details, specifically, what microplastics are doing to our cells. One study found that microplastics can get absorbed into cellular membranes, where they can reduce surface area and increase surface tension. This means the affected cell is prone to membrane dysfunction and early death, ultimately damaging whatever tissue it’s part of. For red blood cells, responsible for transporting oxygen around the body, a reduced surface area means a reduced capacity for carrying oxygen. But the effects don’t end there…
Many microplastics interfere with hormone receptors, and as a result, natural processes in the body can be obstructed, such as sperm creation and the menstrual cycle. This is referred to as ‘disruption of the endocrine system’ or disruption of the hormones.
Hormones regulate hunger, libido, mood, temperature regulation, blood pressure, sleep… just to name a few. It should come as no surprise that when microplastics affect the hormones, they affect the whole body. Side-effects include the worsening of mental health disorders like anxiety and PTSD and the disruption of reproductive health. But don’t panic, microplastics don't cause these conditions, they just increase the risk of their development; a lot of other factors will be at play, such as diet and lifestyle. The fact is, microplastic isn’t killing us, but it’s not helping us either; risks are risks, they aren’t inevitabilities. For some perspective, we all know the risks of UV radiation and yet many of us enjoy going out in the sun.
So what’s the solution?
There must be a way to avoid internalising plastic? Unfortunately, plastic is present in most commonplace food items, from wheat to broccoli, table salts to honey, plastic is near impossible to avoid! Your best bet is trying to limit the amount of plastic you’re exposed to. This means steering clear of plastic packaged foods, ditching bottled water, using reusable glass food containers, opting for loose leaf tea and washing your vegetables before eating them.
Admittedly, the situation isn’t great, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. The more plastic is recognised as a health hazard, the more likely industries are to begin undoing the damage. To switch from plastic to paper. To litter less and reuse more. Ditching plastic altogether may not be feasible, but reducing our exposure and limiting the amount that gets abandoned in the environment, certainly is. Samsara Eco hopes to do this by revolutionising the way plastic is recycled, read more about our technology here.
