According to environmental health experts, Microplastics, the curse of beaches, oceans, waterways and aquatic life everywhere, might also be contaminating the air we breathe.
The Guardian is reporting that a research team at King’s College in London is looking into this serious issue.
Frank Kelly, a researcher and professor of environmental health at King’s College, at an evidence session at the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) in the UK says, “There is a possibility, a real possibility, that some of those microparticles will be entrained into the air, and they will be carried around and we will end up breathing them.
This is a horizon-scanning issue but the particles are of a size that they are [breathable], they are increasing in number in our environment and there is a question to be asked.”
Marcus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres Institute also wrote that YUGE clouds of microplastics are coming from the five subtropical gyres, with an estimated 269,000 tons of plastic from 5.25 trillion particles.
Alarmingly, as Eriksen pointed out, about 92 percent of that plastic is micro plastic.
Kelly and his colleague Dr. Stephanie Wright said in a written statement, “Microplastics have the potential to cause physical and chemical harm, as demonstrated by laboratory studies.
They now present a human health risk, mainly due to their occurrence in dietary sources.”
Plastics can discharge potentially harmful chemicals that can interfere with human hormones. Kelly also noted that the health repercussions of microplastics are only just being looked at.
-Thom
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