Plastic pollution is a scourge on Earth because it doesn’t naturally degrade for decades or even centuries. When many plastics break down, they create tiny particles known as microplastics, which are less than five millimeters long. Their tiny size has allowed them to get into everything, from human blood and breastmilk to the food we eat, stretching to every corner of the globe.
Microplastics create two problems: We don’t fully understand how they impact human health and we don’t know how to get rid of them. A pair of recent studies sheds light on the issue, underscoring the potential risks of ingesting plastic as well as a potential solution to cleaning up the environment.
