Plastics are everywhere in modern life. This fact does not tend to raise many eyebrows these days until the subject of microplastics entering the human body surfaces in the news.
Globally studies being carried out on patients undergoing surgery and on bodies inspected for autopsy are coming back with a worrying conclusion about how integrated plastics are becoming in our lives. Research published in various scientific journals found that 11 of 13 patients who underwent surgery were found to have samples of microplastic embedded deep in their lung tissue. This grim discovery comes after the novel finding of microplastics in the human bloodstream in recent months.
The plastics, typically measuring a fraction of a millimetre, are thought to originate from plastic packaging and bottles. Due to the ever increasing presence of plastic in our daily lives, these numbers are thought to be reflective of humans worldwide as exposure to plastics is taken as a given in the 21st century. The effects of such volumes of plastics in the human body are not yet fully understood. However various studies have concluded that plastic can cause damage to cells and in some species result in the growth of tumours.
Do you think that we should accept this as a reality or fight the pollution of microplastics in our environment?
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