7 December 2019 | New Scientist | 5“CAN’T be seen, can’t be smelled,
can’t be heard, but can be stopped.” That
warning, issued by the US Department
of Health and Human Services, is about
carbon monoxide poisoning from
faulty heaters. It could equally apply to
a newly recognised threat, except for
the last part. Microplastics can’t be seen,
can’t be smelled, can’t be heard – and
can’t be stopped.
As a result of our 50-year addiction
to plastics, microplastics are now
ubiquitous in the environment. These
tiny fragments, formed as plastic breaks
apart into ever-smaller pieces, are found
in soil, water and air. They rain down on
us 24/7 and have entered the food chain
and water supply. There is little or no
prospect of cleaning them up, and the
load will inevitably get worse as the
approximately 8 billion tonnes ofplastic we have manufactured over
the past century or so breaks up but
doesn’t biodegrade.
Concern about microplastics has so
far largely focused on wildlife and the
environment, and there is evidence of
harms to both. But now attention isturning to us. What, if anything, do these
particles do to the human body?
At this point, there are more questions
than answers. To put our ignorance
into perspective, we don’t even know
for sure that the very smallest fragments,
called nanoplastics, actually exist –
even though they are hypothesisedto be the most harmful to our health.
The good news is that researchers are
waking up to the potential threat and
scrambling to find some answers. The
bad news is that it will take years to
properly evaluate the problem. As yet,
funding is paltry: just a few million
euros. Plastic manufacturers who have
made a fortune out of the stuff might
consider putting a hand into their
pocket, perhaps to kick-start research
on technologies to clean up the ever-
increasing amounts of waste.
It may turn out to be a false alarm.
If microplastics posed a specific threat to
human health, perhaps we would have
seen it by now. If that feels like clutching
at (plastic) straws, that is because it is.
Even if we get lucky this time, the natural
world will be paying the price of our so-
called ingenuity for decades to come. ❚Invisible, but ubiquitous
Microplastics are in our air, food and water. Are there health implications?
The leader
“ The 8 billion tonnes of plastic
we have manufactured over the
past century or so will break up
but not biodegrade”EDITORIAL
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