One of the most stubborn macro pollutants of the environment is plastics. A large percentage of the plastic materials currently in circulation are naturally not degradable. Hence, it is a common sight to see disposed plastics littering the environment, especially in areas where environmental sanitation is taken with levity.
Eventually, plastics that litter the environment are washed down to the nearest small water bodies and finally get discharged into larger water bodies. As of today, plastic pollution remains one of the topmost problems facing the various oceans of the world. According to various reports, an equivalent of a truckload of plastics is being discharged into the ocean every minute resulting in an estimate of about 13 million metric tons every year.
At the macro level, one of the most blatant effects of having such a huge quantity of plastics in the ocean is the unpleasant aesthetic sight it gives to the water bodies, thus reducing the tourism potential of waters. Just like alga blooms that stem from nutrient enrichment of water bodies, plastics also constitute a nuisance to waterways, making water navigation very difficult.
It is a different ball game at the micro-level, however. Large plastics are sometimes reduced to micro sizes through the actions of wind, ocean currents, UV radiation, and so on. Micro or nano plastics are sometimes mistaken as food particles by different marine species and the ingestion of these causes a wide range of health issues to these organisms, including death.
Micro or nano plastics' problems are not just limited to the oceans or marine lives because some of the marine organisms serve as foods for humans and other livestock. This means that once these tiny substances find their way into the food chain, virtually every living organisms are at the risk of ingesting them into their systems.
Apart from taking ocean and food chain routes, small plastic particles get into the body systems of humans through other means. These include through the air that we breathe, personal care products such as toothpaste, lip glosses, etc. Also, eating foods that are microwaved in plastics potentially represents a major source of microplastics in humans.
In a very recent study that represents a major breakthrough on the topic of microplastics in humans, blood samples from 22 humans subjects were analyzed for microplastics and 17 of them came back positive. This is the first time in the history of studying microplastics that the substance would be detected in human blood. Previous studies have only been able to detect plastics in human poops.
Now that small plastic particles have the potential to get lodged in our blood, it is almost certain that virtually every human will have some levels in their blood (further research would be needed in order to confirm this). Whether these levels reach a threshold where they can be detected remains a big question. Also, what happens to these plastic particles in the blood? Do they just bioaccumulate with time or they are gotten rid of by the body systems? If they bioaccumulate, what could their long-term effects be on the body systems? It appears that the discovery of plastics in human blood leaves more questions to be answered.
The discovery of microplastics in the faces of humans may be a form of credence to the fact that the body is able to eliminate some of these particles. However, the egested particles may be the ones ingested via the oral route. Hence, it is not easy to just conclude that the body is able to eliminate plastics in the blood.
Also, the potential effects of plastics in human blood have been hypothesized to include
- Physical effects: when a big enough amount of plastic is ingested, it can cause a disruption to the digestive system or even injuries to internal organs.
- Chemical: plastics are made of chemicals and have the potential to react with other chemicals in the body system resulting in different forms of poisoning.
- Vector: plastics could be a carrier for other microbes that have the potential to be pathogenic.
Final Words
The ecological effects of plastics are obvious to everyone. However, the health effects of plastic in the body system remain an area of active research. Plastics have different ways of getting into the body but it remains to see if they are excreted just like normal body wastes or they bioaccumulate in the body system. Everyone should modify their lifestyle to limit plastic from getting into their system while we await further research to know the full implication of plastics in the body system. Not just that, efforts should be made to reduce plastic pollution by proper recycling or limiting plastic production to the ones that can be degraded biologically.
Thank you all for reading.
