Microplastics are yet another existential human and environmental health threat, impacting with issues like the collapse of sperm quantity and quality, as many of the polluting plastics also have hormone disrupting impacts, and these plastics are now everywhere, including inside our organs. Here is a brief guide to the dangers, with articles to follow up. Of primary concern is the impact of microplastics upon human cells and their function, as now detailed. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/amp/microplastics-can-deform-cell-membranes-and-impact-function-351724
“It is estimated that, since the 1950s, more than 70 million tonnes of microplastics have been dumped into the oceans due to industrial manufacturing processes. These plastics are ingested by aquatic and human organisms through water, food and the air we breathe. It is estimated that their size ranges from 0.1 microns to 5 millimeters and are made mainly of polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyamide and acrylics. Plastic particles the size of a micrometer are present literally everywhere: in the oceans, in the air, in the snow of the Himalayas, and even in human placentas. Toothpaste, sunscreens, common chemicals or packaging also contain plastics. And although studies indicate that the consumption of microplastics does not lead to death or immediate or food poisoning, there is growing evidence of its effects on cells at the molecular scale, which are difficult to identify experimentally.
In this context, Vladimir Baulin, physicist and researcher in the Department of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry at the URV, in collaboration with Jean-Baptiste Fleury, of the University of Saarland (Germany), has discovered in a recent study that microplastics can mechanically destabilize lipid membranes by adhering to and tightening them. The results of the study were published in the scientific journal PNAS.