Excerpt:
“The moment you open a plastic water bottle, around 50,000 microplastic particles fall into your beverage – not counting the plastic that’s leached from being stored in heat before it hits the fridge,” says Jane van Dis, an OB-GYN and plastics and health expert…
Microplastics have been found everywhere on Earth and in every part of the human body where scientists have looked.
Even organs that have additional protective barriers – think the blood-brain barrier or the blood-testis barrier – have proved no match for keeping out these tiny particles, which form as larger plastic objects break down or shed into our air, water, and food.
Even newborns taking their first breath have already been doused in many plastic-related chemicals. Many of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors, meaning they can mimic or interfere with the body’s hormone signals.
It has become impossible to ignore: Tiny fragments of plastic and the chemicals used to make them are everywhere.
We also have mounting evidence that they harm our health.
But it is possible to reduce our exposure.
“There are safe and simple steps we can all take to reduce exposure that don’t require a Ph.D. in chemistry, and they don’t have to break the bank,” said Leonardo Transande, professor of pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine during a panel discussion on March 2, 2025, exploring the health impact of plastics at the Medical Society Consortium on Climate Change and Health.
We eat them, drink them, inhale them, and even chew on them every time we gnaw on a piece of gum.
It doesn’t take much for microplastics and the chemical additives used to give plastic its flexibility, durability, or color to shed or leach out into the surrounding environment. This can be particularly worrisome when plastic is used to store or cover the food we eat or the water we drink…
