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By: Courtney Sheikh Summary: Microplastics are small plastic pieces that have to be less than five millimeters long and can be harmful to ocean and aquatic life. Plastic can take 500 to 1000 years to break down. Plastic like this can come from household products to big corporations and many more sources. It also comes from larger pieces breaking down into smaller and smaller fragments from abrasion and sunlight over time. Microplastics can be more dangerous than full pieces of plastic since it is easier for aquatic life to ingest, birds also can mistake microplastics for food. Fish and birds ingest microplastics which can cause digestive and reproductive problems. This is the same aquatic life that is often eaten by humans. Microbeads are a type of microplastics; they are really small pieces of a different kind of plastic that are added into health and beauty products, like toothpastes and face scrubs. These tiny particles are the ones that are being seen pass through water filtration systems. There are many people who depend on the Great Lakes for their water source and they can be in danger of drinking contaminated water. Microbeads are not new and have been around since the 1960s, but there was an act banning them from personal care and cosmetics products in the United States in 2015. Health effects that are in correlation with consuming microbeads are still unknown. There are lots of plastics in the lakes. Even though lakes will not have a garbage patch like there is in the ocean, they do get plastics that get washed up on shore frequently. The Great Lakes are surrounded by many bodies of land. Therefore, plastics can also affect tourism and animals that are near shore getting food. Microplastics and microbeads are a problem. One way we can help is by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Why we should care? With microplastics there can be a negative impact on our food and fresh water supplies. At this point, we do not have the exact details on what can happen over a long period of microplastic consumption.  Credit: http://www.waterkeeper.ca/cases-microplastics Example News Article: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/08/12/great-lakes-pollution-threat-microplastics/39943421/ This news article is very interesting simply because of the fact that this is in The Detroit News with research that is happening in a whole different state. This shows that with having a problem in waterways it does not just affect a small area but more so anyone that has access to the waterways. Microplastics have also been a problem we have been dealing with since the 1960s and do not have any research on how they affect us in water and food we consume. In this article it states there are lots of particles that come from washing machines that escape down the drain and make there way through the wastewater treatment plants. Not many know or even care about the amounts we pollute ourselves with just everyday usage of products. Science in Action.
Phillip Schwabl is a research scientist and physician that specializes in intestinal diseases at the Medical University of Vienna. Phillip Schawlb’s research is to examine human feces and see if there are microplastics to determine whether we involuntary ingest them. In his research there were 9 types out of 10 common microplastics detected in the stool. Future work of Phillip's is to determine what the impacts of microplastics are on the human intestinal tract. This is research that has not been done and we do not know the damage the plastics can do to our bodies, or if they do anything at all. These plastics are being ingested through our “clean” food and “fresh” water sources.
6 Comments
Del
11/4/2019 12:37:28
Hi Courtney,
Cami Emerson
11/8/2019 15:54:01
I find it concerning that microbeads can pass through filtration systems. The more plastic we use the more microbeads there will be and it's scary to think about how they will effect our health. I also wonder what impacts microbeads will have on wildlife.
Olivia Franklin
11/8/2019 23:36:49
It scares me that 1) microbeads even exist (What exactly is their purpose? Why did they start getting put in products?) and 2) we’re practically guinea pigs to the effects of consuming microplastics. It’s clear that they harm sea life dramatically so I wonder how long it will take to see those same effects show in humans. There’s a product on the market that is supposed to catch micro fibers when you wash your clothes to prevent them from getting into waterways. I wonder how effective this is and what other solutions to this problem exist.
Rachel Cozzi
11/10/2019 11:18:56
It is crazy to think about how even if someone picks up plastic litter out of the ocean/lake or off of a beach, the negative impact of the plastic is still going to be in our environment, as the litter most likely at least slightly degraded, leaving behind microplastics. Along with microbeads, the inserted chart states that plastic strands from clothing are also causing a negative impact. I am wondering which materials have the most negative (and positive) impact on the environment in regards to microplastics.
Tyler Travis
11/13/2019 11:49:11
It is crazy to think about how microplastics can be anywhere in our food without us even realizing it. They can harm the environment drastically which most people do not even realize. This seems like such a hard problem to solve because there is already so much damage. The lakes, rivers and oceans are already filled with tons of trash, plastics and microplastics that will take years to clean out. I think it is up to the people to change before we can see real changes in the environment. We can clean up as much trash as we want. However if we do not implement a behavioral change in people and their actions, essentially the problem will not improve.
Rahima T
11/21/2019 11:22:53
I know I'm not a doctor, but having plastic in a human body doesn't seem healthy or good at all. I don’t really eat seafood, but my family does so its kinda worrying to think how much plastic could potentially be in the fish eaten. As a Michigander its really sad to think of all the plastic in the great lakes. The act banning microbeads is a great start. but the government should continue that trend with banning other plastic sources or encouraging reusable objects. Maybe if plastic objects were priced higher, reusable objects would be used more often as a way to save money, and lessen microplastics that form from larger pieces of plastic. If they take so long to break down there should be more of an incentive to recycle plastics, and teach in schools how to recycle, since there are different kinds of plastics and rules for recycling Leave a Reply. |
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