If you read the research on microplastics, these pollutants appear to be as frightening as they are ubiquitous. Found throughout our bodies, food and environment, both microplastics and their ingredients have been linked to heart attacks, stroke, respiratory conditions, fertility issues and death—to name just a few issues.
Yet despite these traits, scientists don’t fully understand how all the minuscule filaments of plastic get into our environment. A study published last month in Science Advances offers some new clues as to how water may be contributing to their spread.
Scientists already knew that plastics degrade through exposure to sunlight and repeated weathering by waves, sand or other debris. But the new study suggests contact with water itself is also a factor: in both marine and river environments, researchers found that microbubbles can form on the surface of a piece of plastic, breaking it down—and releasing tiny, practically invisible plastic bits into the surrounding water.
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From there, nanoplastics and microplastics often enter the food chain—and, in turn, us. An estimated 130 million metric tons of plastic waste enters our bodies and the environment every year, with that number on track to more than double by 2040.
The results, the researchers write, could inspire future research on how to control the release of microplastic into, well, everything. “Plastic degradation is an invisible threat to the environment and human health,” said John Boland, a professor in the School of Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin and senior author of the study, in a statement. “Society urgently needs to come to grips with the enormity of the challenge posed by our ubiquitous use of plastics.”