Since the plastic is smaller wouldn’t it just break down faster than a huge piece of plastic?
In: Planetary Science
The big deal is with the “micro” part. Eventually it gets so small that it can become embedded in your body’s tissues which can cause all sorts of problems.
Plastic is plastic, size doesn’t matter. It never (millennia) breaks down. The problem with micro plastics is that we’ve now found it in inside cells, such that 98% of the human population has it embedded in their cells.
The issue is, this discovery is so recent, and exists with no control group, that we have no legitimate way of determining the long-term effects on the human body, or the population at large.
A lot of people liken it to the asbestos, or lead, of the modern era. We’re still just figuring out what this poison does to us, and how it can be dealt with going forward, given that we use plastic for *everything*
We’re finding it *everywhere*. Like unavoidable by organic life everywhere.
We haven’t had this problem long enough to know what sort of consequences there might be. Wouldn’t want to find out it’s like lead pipes causing all sorts of widespread health problems.
1 ton of nano plastic and a 1 ton block of solid plastic is still 1 ton of plastic.
However, nanoplastic can very easily get into literally everything. You included.
If a bacteria or virus gets into us our body can fight it. Release antibodies and white blood cells to dismantle the invader on a chemical level.
But there are no antibodies or white blood cells capable of breaking down plastic.
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