Overview
Plastics fragment over time in many ways and become incorporated into the environment where they further degrade into ever smaller pieces. Tiny invisible plastic particles called micro and nano plastics are of great concern because they are durable, have complex chemistry, and are persistent in the environment. These characteristics can create long-term risk in environmental media (air, water and soil) and for wellbeing (health of people, creatures and food systems). Microplastics are currently defined as fibers and particles that are smaller than 5 mm in length. Those below 1 mm are of interest for ecological and human health related concerns.
Microplastics are documented in soil, surface and ground water, air, oceans and in remote places from pole-to-pole. Microplastics as an emergent class of pollution is unlike any other pollution because they can include many thousands of complex chemicals, many of them having little or no publicly available toxicological information. It warrants deeper understanding at the system level about what might be happening in the environment, in our bodies and those of more-than-human beings.
Microplastics are grouped as particles (e.g., from tires, small objects like bottle caps, and fragments of product and packaging) and fibers that are released from synthetic clothing, textiles, carpet and more. Both forms of microplastics are of significant concern for soil health in agriculture, quality of drinking water and aquaculture, quality of air, health of people and wildlife and long-term ecosystem resilience.
For example, in the Pacific Northwest, research has documented a variety of ecosystem concerns across different trophic levels and for diverse life forms including shellfish, fish, mammals, birds, insects, plants, and soil dwellers like earthworms and microbes. It all connects back to wellbeing of people and places. Many common food items purchased in grocery stores, and wild caught species are shown to contain microplastics in the gut and in the edible flesh. There is much that is unknow about how microplastics could affect all life on Earth. Cooperative research is essential for better understanding and long-term wellbeing in our region.
Relevant research and resources