The Science That Casts Doubt on Claims About Microplastics
upstart writes:
The 'bombshell' science that casts doubt on claims about microplastics:
[...] Officially, microplastics are no larger than five millimetres in size (the size of a grain of rice or smaller), whereas nanoplastics are one nanometre to 1000 nanometres in size (as small as bacteria) and are a lot harder to detect. In recent years, studies have claimed to have found these minuscule particles in nearly every human organ and tissue, including the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, brain, placenta, testicles, bone marrow and blood.
[...] With large microplastics, scientists can easily spot particles under a microscope and then fire a laser at them to see if they are plastic. But with nanoplastics, scientists must burn the particle and measure the gases emitted, which is less reliable and still in its infancy as a technique.
This unreliability of testing has made researchers more sceptical about the more alarmist findings. An abstract presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology last year showing microplastics in human reproductive fluids was met with raised eyebrows among scientists.
"Many previous scary sounding headlines on microplastics in blood and food have turned out to be measurement errors," warns Oliver Jones, professor of chemistry at RMIT University, Melbourne, referring to reports that preceded last year's findings.
Likewise, separate claims that microplastics had been found in human blood in 2022 were criticised by a US chemist as being "consistent with incidental or accidental contaminations", in a letter to the Environmental International journal.
[...] Yet despite the testing issues, many experts are still convinced microplastics are causing harm.
Prof Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and epidemiologist at Boston College in the US, led a recent review into microplastics for the Lancet, and says people should not dismiss the dangers. "The Guardian article is accurate in pointing out that there is work to be done in refining, standardising and harmonising the analytical techniques for examining microplastics in tissue samples," he says.
"There is a need especially to distinguish microplastics from lipids [fats]. But the Guardian is wrong in implying that this whole area of science is rubbish.
"The presence of microplastics in the human body needs to be taken seriously, even if we don't yet know all the ways in which they may harm health. They cannot be wished away."
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