Roughly 20 years in the past, Richard Thompson, a marine biologist, first found a worrisome accumulation of small plastic particles in ocean habitats and coined the phrase “microplastics.” Since then, scientists have been discovering these fragments in all places, from distant mountain peaks and the Arctic to the ocean seafloor.
Within the decade that adopted, scientists started to find microplastics embedded in a variety of dwelling creatures, together with within the seafood we eat. Extra lately, microplastics have been discovered contained in the human physique: in our lungs, our blood, our feces and in breast milk.
In 2021, Italian researchers for the primary time recognized microplastics in human placenta.
The query, scientists have been asking with growing urgency, is whether or not these artificial, overseas our bodies pose a menace to human well being.
“We all know microplastics are in all places, we all know they’re dangerous to marine life and to our fisheries, however the analysis aspect of how they impression people continues to be catching up,” stated Imari Walker-Franklin, an environmental engineer and chemistry researcher at RTI Worldwide who research microplastics.
