If you pay attention to the news media, you’ve likely heard about microplastics. But what are they and how do they impact your health and the health of our planet?

In today’s post, learn the shocking truth about microplastics—what they are, where you’ll find them, and the risks they pose to your health. More importantly, find out some steps you can take to reduce your exposure.

This post was originally published in August 2020 and republished in June 2023.

We are plastic people

Many headlines are written for shock value, but I found this one from The Globe and Mail pretty hard to ignore: We are all plastic people now, in ways we can’t see – and can no longer ignore. Written by Rick Smith, co-author of Slow Death By Rubber Duck, it opened my eyes to the seriousness of the problems caused by microplastics and why we need to pay attention to them.

I’ll summarize the key takeaways from the article here, but take the time to read the full article. It’s shocking and enlightening.

The problem with plastic

A sad truth of the pandemic was how the plastics industry seized the opportunity to exploit the situation, positioning plastic as a safer, cleaner, healthier option.

In the Globe and Mail article, Kelly shares some interesting stats. Global plastic production is 400 million tonnes a year and it’s expected to double in the next 20 years. Almost half of all plastic ever produced has been made in the last 13 years. And, the most shocking statistic for me is that close to half of all plastic produced is single-use, much of which is used for just a few minutes and discarded.

I want to be clear that I am not anti-plastic. Plastic serves a purpose and has resulted in improvements in many of the products we use every day. I am, however, clearly against household use of single-use plastic. The explosion of single-use items in our homes is a result of human laziness and our never-ending quest for convenience.

What are microplastics?

The problem with plastic is it never truly disintegrates. It just gets shredded into increasingly smaller bits. As the name suggests, microplastics are microscopic bits of plastic that come from discarded plastic waste.

Although we can’t see them, microplastics are everywhere. They’re in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. They have been found in every species on earth.

Every time you pick up a plastic pen, drink from a single-use plastic water bottle, or use anything made of plastic, you’re unknowingly adding to the problem.

Clothing made from synthetic fibres like polyester and acrylic is another significant source of microplastics. When you wear this clothing, the fibres slough off into household dust so it’s in the air you breathe. When you wash the clothing, the fibres wash down the drain, ending up in our rivers, lakes and oceans. This ultimately contaminates our drinking water and the food that we catch from the water.

What you can’t see can’t hurt you. Or can it?

If you can’t see microplastics, do you need to worry about them? The simple answer is yes!

In The Globe and Mail article, the author decided he wanted to test his body for microplastics, so he engaged a research lab to do an experiment.

Over a period of six days, the lab tested his stool samples. On day one and two, he carried on his life as normal. On days three to six, he cranked up his exposure and ingestion of microplastics by doing things many of us do every day. He ate food shrink-wrapped in plastic wrap and cooked in bottled water. He heated meals in the microwave in plastic containers. And, he drank coffee made in a Keurig, and used nylon tea bags. And, he wore polyester clothing. Hardly the stuff of science fiction!

The results were shocking. The lab analysis showed microplastics in all the samples, including those taken on days one and two. The later samples turned up more microplastics, increasing over the four days. But, what’s really scary is, when the samples were analyzed under a microscope, they contained visible fibres that could only have come from the clothing he wore.

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Why are microplastics a problem?

In short, ingesting these tiny bits of plastic could expose us to toxic chemicals. The raw materials of plastic are created from fossil fuels including oil and natural gas. Add in thousands of chemicals, depending on the product, to make it harder, softer, or more flexible. These chemicals include bisphenols, such as bisphenol A (BPA), and phthalates, which can flow or leach into the foods touched by plastic, especially when that plastic is warmed. Bisphenols are thought to affect reproductive function and can increase obesity and cancer risk.

Clearly. we need more study on the impact of microplastics on our bodies. In some studies in rats, mothers pass the toxins from microplastic particles they have inhaled on to their fetuses. The particles enter the fetus’ blood stream and have been able to pass through the blood brain barrier that protects the brain from foreign bodies circulating in the blood stream. What impact will that have on the brain over the long term?

What can you do to reduce your exposure?

So, if microplastics are in the air we breathe, we clearly can’t eliminate them from our lives. But here are 9 things you can do to reduce your exposure.

• Avoid bottled water. I feel like a broken record on this one, but the potential impact of this simple change is huge. We use over 200 billion water bottles worldwide each year.
• Buy clothing made from natural materials. Read my post Why it’s time to ditch fast fashion to find out why fast fashion clothing made from synthetic fibres is a huge issue.
• Don’t microwave plastic—even plastic wrap. Use ceramic plates or glass containers in the microwave.
• Check the codes on your plastics. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports plastic food containers with recycling codes 3, 6 and 7 may contain harmful chemicals and shouldn’t be used to store food.
• Minimize dust in your home by dusting and vacuuming regularly.
• Stay away from beauty products with microbeads like exfoliating cleansers and body scrubs. Use a scrubbing sponge or mitt made from a natural fibre instead. Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries have banned microbeads. To find out more about which products use microbeads and which countries have banned them, visit this website.
• Wash your clothes less often. A single load of laundry releases hundreds of thousands of microplastic particles.
• Use a washcloth instead of wet wipes. If you do use wipes, don’t flush them. They wreak havoc with plumbing systems and don’t break down like toilet paper.
• And, much as we love sparkles, avoid glitter made of plastic particles!

Change will be difficult

I read The Globe and Mail article at 7:00 on a Saturday morning as I was sitting in the McDonald’s parking lot waiting for my daughter to get off work. As I read, dozens of customers went through the drive through to pick up their morning coffee in disposable cups. This is clearly a problem that is going to be very difficult to solve. It’s hard to change habits we’ve formed over a lifetime. And we can be sure that the plastics industry will fight any attempt to crack down on the use of plastic and continue their tactics to convince you there is no problem.

A good first step is to change our own behaviour. Change starts with you!

What scares you the most about microplastics? Join the conversation below.