Malevolence of Microplastics

I belong to the American Chemical Society.  As a member I receive Chemical and Engineering News monthly.  The May 2026 issue has an interesting article entitled, “The microplastics conundrum.  When the particles are everywhere, including the lab, how do you study them.” by Fintan Burke (freelance writer based in Germany).

Let’s examine why I used the word “malevolence” in the title. Plastics come from the petrochemical industry.  We use them for almost everything including medical devices like syringes, tubing, parts of pacemakers and so forth.  Plastics are also used for automobile parts, containers, clothing, etc, etc, but this is not news.  What’s news is that every plastic use and manufacture produces tiny bits of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters, that’s thousands of a meter;  some in the nanometer range, that’s billionths of a meter.  Really small stuff.  So small in fact, that microplastics bypass our biology—our stomach, our intestines, our lungs, and probably our skin.

Scientists are concerned because these same particles cause inflammation in mice.  Sound familiar?  We take lots of drugs, change our diet and change our behavior to reduce inflammation. Inflammation is a precursor to heart attacks, cancer, you name it.  You bet there’s concern.  There’s another less investigated and less known concern.  Some of our plastics apparently have hormonal activity—more on that in a bit.

Analytical Chemists have discovered that their reagents, clothing, and commercial chemicals used in laboratories contain microplastics.  If you want to tell how much microplastic is in fish, for example, how do you do that when the reagents you use also contain microplastic.  As an example, the Norwegian Institute for Marine Research has a special laboratory for microplastics.  Only a few can enter.  The lab is pressurized.  All clothing is replaced by cotton clothing before entering.  No hairspray allowed.  All containers are glass. All equipment is glass or steel.  Sticky material removes microplastics from shoes.  Cleaning the lab is by the PhDs and students using the lab, not by regular cleaning crews.  Get the idea?  This is serious business.

Here’s the implication of what the Analytical Chemists have found.  Microplastics are everywhere.  Every step you take puffs up microplastics.  Every breath you take contains some microplastics.  How much you ask?  Well, it’s so difficult to analyze microplastics that I cite a Chemical and Engineering publication on the subject, so no one knows exactly. We know this stuff is everywhere. Microplastics are in your body,  likely in every organ.

I asked AI if plastics have estrogenic activity.  Here’s the actual response.  This is not new information by the way.  It’s been known for years. Why do girls mature early?  Why are sperm counts decreasing?

“Yes, most plastic products leach chemicals that exhibit estrogenic activity (EA), acting as endocrine disruptors that mimic or block the hormone estrogen. These chemicals, including BPA and phthalates, can disrupt hormone balance, potentially impacting reproductive health and increasing the risk of diseases like cancer.

 

 

Key details on plastic-related estrogenic effects:

 

• Common Culprits: Bisphenol A (BPA) and various phthalates are well-known, but even “BPA-free” plastic substitutes often leach estrogenic chemicals.
• How They Work: These chemicals act as agonists/antagonists to estrogen receptors, interfering with the body’s endocrine system.
• Leaching Factors: Estrogenic activity increases when plastics are exposed to sunlight, heat, or wear and tear.
• Health Implications: Exposure has been linked to early puberty in girls, reproductive issues (PCOS, endometriosis), and hormone-sensitive cancers (breast, prostate).
• Ubiquity: A significant majority of people have detectable levels of these chemicals in their bodies, with high exposure in children.

Chemicals in plastics can leach into food and liquids, particularly when heated.

 

Here’s another source–https://www.openmindmag.org/articles/the-plastic-trap.

 

I gave a series of lectures at a charter school—sixth grade.  I asked the teachers what I could expect in the students.  They answered that some would be young, some would be more mature than sixth graders(whatever that means), some would be made up like they were 22 and some of the 11-year girls would be pregnant.  Fully sixty percent of the girls were made up like adults.  Three were pregnant.

 

I predict that the petrochemical industry will respond like big tobacco as the data accumulates on the negative effects of microplastics.  They will ask for more study.  They will challenge the methods of researchers.  They will challenge the qualifications of researchers. They will sponsor research by friendly researchers.  They will ask for more study. They will ask for more study.

 

We have an enormous problem caused by a major, major, big money  industry.   We are overdue for eliminating microplastics from the environment.