It feels like every few weeks i see an article about microplastics being in the human body. As i understand plastics are inert so why do we expect them to be any more harmful than normal dust?
In: Biology
Plastics are MOSTLY inert. The polymer part does break down over time, releasing poorly known breakdown products, and there can be other contaminants embedded in the plastic that can leach out over time as well.
Because “micro” means they get into tiny little pores and holes in your organs, and then they get stuck there (forever, since they’re inert). Your body doesn’t clean itself the same way that you clean your house and take the trash out.
Microplastics can disrupt various bodily systems, including the digestive, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems. For example, in the digestive system, microplastics can cause inflammation and alter the intestinal microbiome.
When they say micro, they mean it. Some of this plastic is germ sized, and we don’t know how they will react with human cells.
Anything that isn’t supposed to be in our bodies is a potential concern. We don’t yet know the full effects of prolonged exposure to microplastics but the fact that they are inert and non-biodegradable means that once they get into you they don’t come out for a long, long time. Solid masses like those could cause organ damage or block the flow of bodily fluids or cause other unexpected issues if they accumulate too much, but the main concern right now is we just don’t know how to get rid of them.
Keep in mind that “inert” does not mean harmless. Asbestos is largely “inert,” and it’s the constant irritation and internal inflammation that ends up triggering problems.
We don’t really know enough about what the microplastics do. Maybe some of them do nothing in our bodies. Maybe having them just bounce around inside the cell is enough to damage things inside the cell, causing them to self destruct, or maybe causing some cancers. Maybe some of them break down into shapes that happen to fit into hormone receptors.
So there is worry because we don’t know. If I handed you a beaker of chemicals and said “drink this, it might be fine, but we haven’t really looked into any sort of long term effects yet,” maybe you’d be hesitant to drink it–at the very least, you’d probably want to keep looking for those long term effects, and maybe think about alternatives to drinking it until they are better studied.
The problem is that we don’t fully understand all the consequences of microplastics because we’ve only known about them for a few years, but from what I’ve read so far, the preliminary conclusions are “they are not healthy”.
Stuff like gut inflammation (so IBS etc.), erectile problems, fertility problems, possibly even neurological issues (yes, we have microplastics in our brains).
The full impacts of this will only be understood in the coming decades.
Studies have shown that they substantially increase the risk for several medical conditions. Also, they’re not inert, nothing is. Even inert gases aren’t actually inert.
There are several compounds in plastics that are wildly harmful to humans. Even in plastics that don’t contain these compounds, the presence of foreign matter can interfere with the function of systems. Think of it like throwing a wrench in a gearbox.
They get EVERYWHERE in your body. They accumulate inside your brain, your heart, your reproductive organs, everywhere. They can obstruct blood flow and damage the surrounding tissues, and your body doesn’t have any tools that can break them down, so they stay there forever.
Plastics are made primarily of the sane chemicals and atoms as we are. H O C N and some other stuff.
They are put together differently…but sometimes not that differently. That’s where the problems begin.
When we shake hands two people hold out their right hands…what if one holds out their left hand…it looks the same, but doesn’t work the same.
Plastics can mimick molecules the cell needs. Especially one end and that gets plugged into something that the cell was counting on.
Now I’ve been learning about zombie cells. We understand that cancer cells are corrupted cells that become voracious…but more often these mistakes are just dysfunctional and merely take up space. It happens a lot, apparently that’s why we age. Our bodies get filled with nonfunctional cells.
Now add in micro plastics….
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