25 Sep 2024
Plastic people
When I was a kid there was a comic book character called Plastic Man. He could do all sorts of contortions, including flattening his body to slip under a door like a piece of paper. Then, it was far fetched to think of people made of plastic. Now, not so much. Over the past two decades we have learned that plastic that escapes or is discarded into the environment crumbles into small particles much as rocks erode down into grains of sand, but much faster. These bits of plastic, called microplastics, keep eroding down into nanoplastic particles too small to see without a microscope. The particles are formed by the breakdown of the plastics that surround us, including packages and synthetic clothes such as fleece. These tiny bits of plastic are found throughout the environment and the creatures in it. We ingest them in the food we eat, water we drink and air we breathe. An article in sciencealert.com said they have been detected in our lungs, livers, kidneys, brains, hearts, blood and reproductive organs. Scientists are trying to get clearer idea of the health impacts of the plastics and the chemicals they can carry with them. An article in prominent medical journal The Lancet earlier this year said potential health effects include “…oxidative stress, inflammation, immune dysfunction, altered biochemical and energy metabolism, impaired cell proliferation, disrupted microbial metabolic pathways, abnormal organ development, and carcinogenicity.” We have reshaped our world and now it is reshaping us. We may not like the result.