“Plastic, would create a world brighter and clearer than any previously known […] a world free from moth and rust and full of colour”. “A world in which man, like a magician makes what he wants for almost every need….” (From a book on Plastics written in 1941)
We woke up to the dangers of plastic waste accumulating around us during the seventies. Packaging and single use plastics make up the major chunk of plastic waste. But remember single-use plastics are also essential for healthcare applications such as personal protective equipments, syringes, sterile packaging, life support equipment, etc. In brief we have gotten so used to the convenience of the disposable plastics that we cannot live without them. Of course there have been attempts to contain plastic waste. Biodegradable alternatives have proved to be too costly to adopt. Also there are legitimate concerns about their performance. Now attempts are on for popularizing the 3Rs; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This again is not a smooth path forward. It is a pity that The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastics Pollution which met from 5 to 15 August 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland failed to arrive at an international legally binding resolution. Because India, United States, China and several Arab countries don't want any curb on plastics production.
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| Courtesy: Wikipedia |
But now an associated major concern is looming large. The discarded plastic items weathered by water, wind, sunlight or heat or even by tearing and friction, disintegrates yielding smaller particles which are of micrometer or nanometer in size. Collectively called MNPs (Micro&Nano Plastics) these have become ubiquitous: they can enter our body through the air we breathe, through the food we eat, and drink. MNPs have been found in human saliva, blood, breast milk and in the liver, kidneys, spleen, brain and even bones. There was a time when specially designed microbeads were added to formulations such as toothpaste and scrubbing creams to enhance abrasion, a practice which has since been discarded. In a recent podcast, Professor Matthew Campen, University of New Mexico cautions us: Beware of tiny plastic particles, these are invading our bodies including the brain and organs. In a study conducted on postmortem liver, kidney and brain samples, MNPs were detected in higher concentration the brain than in the liver or kidney. The brain samples of dementia patients registered higher MNP content. In another study conducted in Netherlands, 17 out of 22 volunteers had MNPs in their blood samples.
We are now faced with a key question: Human body has a robust clearing process. Generally if we inhale or swallow anything unwanted/undigestible/alien, our body gets rid of them all, through cough, through urine or feces. Then how do MNPs escape this clearing process? To answer we need a standardized approach across laboratories to quantify and analyze MNPs in biological tissues/organs. To begin with uniform well defined, reproducible protocols for human tissue collection, precautions for minimizing contamination and robust controls, detection methods etc should be adopted. With these guidelines in place biological processes such as absorption, metabolism, transportation, and accumulation of MNPs as well as their ability to cross biological barriers should be monitored. This will facilitate comparing results from across the globe and allow conclusions to be drawn. Currently comprehensive epidemiological studies on MNPs are lacking.
That leads us to the next more critical question: how exactly are MNPs messing up our health? Unfortunately here again we don't have clear answers as of now. What we have are speculations and possibilities which are alarming. There is general consensus that MNPs could cause serious biological complications for us in the long run. Perhaps it might take a generation or two for manifestation. For the time being the best policy will be to rely on the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
TAIL PIECE:
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| Courtesy: wikipedia |
REFEREMNCES:
1. How microplastics are invading our bodies
2. Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains
3. Microplastics: A Real Global Threat for Environment and Food Safety: A State of the Art Review
