Plastic pollution is becoming more and more perilous each week and every month.
The main concern when the Daily Mail started campaigning about the issue was the increasing amount of plastic littering the countryside, towns and beaches. Research revealed how plastic was contaminating the Earth and threatening the ecosystems, including the oceans.
After being broken down into microscopic particles, evidence is emerging that plastic can be a danger to our health.
As the Mail reported yesterday, a new study suggests that we all breathe in up to 7,000 microplastic particles a day — 100 times more than had been previously thought.
Geoffrey Lean writes that plastic pollution poses a serious threat to our health week by week.
Bedrohungs
Another study suggests that children consume 14 times more plastic bottles than adults. This may be partly due to sucking on dummies or drinking out of plastic bottles.
Microplastics may also cause allergies, diabetes, low sperm counts, and possibly even cancer. Many experts even compare microplastics to asbestos.
It doesn’t matter what the effects of microplastics are, we know that they have been a constant threat to our health and safety.
This all stems from our ubiquitous plastic use, which has grown 20-fold in the past 50 years. Every year, we churn out more than 380 million tonnes of it — outweighing the combined mass of all 7.9 billion people alive today. This is worse than ever. It will more than double in the next 30 year.
Many of these tonnes end up in the oceans as garbage. Every year, 12 million tonnes reaches the oceans where it forms enormous floating garbage patches — one in the Pacific is three times the size of France — and kills mammals, birds and fish. All of this remains, as every ounce produced is not lost. Instead, it breaks down in smaller and smaller parts, eventually creating microplastics that are as small as a grain rice, but completely invisible.
Microplastics may also be deliberately made and added to products, such as paints and medicines.
Many of these tonnes end up in the oceans as garbage. Every year, 12 million tonnes reaches the oceans where it forms enormous floating garbage patches — one in the Pacific is three times the size of France — and kills mammals, birds and fish (stock image)
More are the result of wear and tear from car tyres hitting the roads or washing machines working to wash the remaining two-thirds synthetic fabrics. A single washing can produce 700,000. These microfibres are also released by nearly all 11 billion British wet wipes each year.
Because they’re so small, microplastics can be taken from sea spray or ground and then blown across the globe. Even in the rain, they can even be found.
They have been found at the North Pole and on tropical island beaches, on the top of Everest and at the bottom of the Mariana Trench — the highest and lowest spots on Earth — and 3.5 km up in the atmosphere, where they may affect the climate.
Recent research has shown that the Arctic’s ‘pervasive’ microfibre contamination is linked to clothes-washing practices in North America, Europe and Asia. All told, there are approximately 125 trillion tiny particles in the oceans of the globe, plus many more that are found on land.
They are also 60 times more common indoors than outdoors. So the University of Portsmouth study reported in yesterday’s Mail — which used special equipment to measure the air in a home in Beckenham, London — found that each member of the family living there was likely to be breathing in between 2,000 and 7,000 microplastic particles every day.
So the University of Portsmouth study reported in yesterday’s Mail — which used special equipment to measure the air in a home in Beckenham, London — found that each member of the family living there was likely to be breathing in between 2,000 and 7,000 microplastic particles every day. Michelle Morrison with her daughter.
The staggering figure is 2.5 million annually, which is far more than was estimated by previous studies. It was estimated at about 100 million annually by one study published in Environmental Science and Technology.
In the bedroom of the 8-year-old girl, the highest level was found. There, her bedding and carpet were all made from synthetic materials.
Of course, this is only one study. But it is of a piece with others that suggest our exposure to microplastics is much greater — and much more serious — than has ever been thought.
According to a New York University School of Medicine study on microplastic fibres, babies produce 14x more than adult feces. This was attributed to the use of plastic items/articles like sippy cups and spoons as well as utensils, such as bowls and spoons for baby care, and teethers.
It is inflamed
It stated that infant formula made in plastic bottles could release many millions of microplastics. Many processed baby food products are also packaged in plastic containers, which can increase the risk of contamination. It also stated that babies chew, suck, and crawl on synthetic material-based carpets.
This is not all. Microplastics are found in one-third of fish caught by British vessels. They can also be found in more than four-fifths all tap water samples surveyed across every continent. Bottled water typically has far less.
Is this really doing us any harm? We don’t really know. The research is just beginning to be seriously undertaken.
Microplastics in our lungs are the most concerning concern of scientists, such as at Beckenham. They are less harmful than ingesting them in water and food, as most of them will eventually be eliminated from the body.
“Infant formula that has been prepared in bottles may release millions upon exposure. Furthermore, many baby foods packaged in plastic containers can expose the child to microplastics,” it said (stock image).
The smaller particles are more likely to reach the lungs and stay there.
Early findings from a landmark £5 million study at Utrecht University found that adding microplastics to human tissue caused it to become inflamed, partly because the immune system cannot cope with them.
Researchers compared it to asbestos’s effects and were concerned about the possibility of arthritis, diabetes and allergies.
Campaign
The growing concern is about the health of babies within the womb. A study by the Italians found microplastics in human placentas. Another study on rats showed that their mothers passed them onto their babies, which then ended up in their brains. These microplastics also appear to decrease birth weight.
Others have found that the compounds can decrease sperm counts in rodents. There are also fears that they could cause cancer by disrupting cells. This is perhaps the most concerning fact: they were found in biopsy samples of malignant lung tissue.
There is currently no method to eliminate microplastics. They will only increase with more plastic pollution.
This campaign was successful in many ways, with a significant drop in the number of plastic bags that were produced after a cost (file Photo).
The only solution is to reduce our use of plastic as much as possible — which has long been the aim of the Mail’s campaign.
This campaign had many success stories, such as a drastic reduction in single-use plastic bags after the imposition of an additional charge and banning plastic straws, plastic stirrers and cotton buds, and plastic microbeads used in cosmetics.
There is much more to be done. To encourage plastic bottle return, ministers need to accelerate their plans for taxing plastic packaging. They should also place refundable deposits on bottles to help them get back into business.
This is not about reducing litter or preventing environmental damage. It’s about safeguarding the health of ourselves and our children.