Food containers, rice, beer, table salt, toothpaste, and baby formula bottles all have something in common: microplastics. “Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters that are derived from plastic waste or personal care products, which some companies purposefully use,” said Dr. Patricia Calvo, an NSU professor with a PhD in organic polymer chemistry from the University of Florida.
Microplastics are used for their exfoliating properties and are typically found as small beads.
Some NSU students were shocked to find out that the everyday products they use contain a harmful, hidden component that can impact their health and take decades to degrade fully.
“Microplastics can affect our lungs, how we breathe, how our bodies digest, and our systems within, but specifically their toxins,” said Skyler Mayse, freshman nursing major. “It is terrible.”
More than 100,000 microplastic specks are inhaled or eaten each day, according to Albert Koelmans, an environmental scientist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
“I knew I was eating microplastics, but not that many. It makes me think that I must move to Europe and get away from this American lifestyle, which involves so much plastic waste that is not recycled properly,” said AJ Crowley, freshman biology major.
Products, such as body scrubs, mascara, lipstick, and other selfcare products, typically contain these tiny particles.
“For example, any of the toothpastes that have blue specks in them are typically the ones that have microplastics, which helps against plaque and surface erosion,” said Calvo. “It is hard to know which products might have microplastics since you cannot see them.”
Questions and concerns have risen among students as to why microplastics would purposefully be in such commonly used products to begin with since the benefits do not seem to outweigh the detriments.
“A lot of companies are not environmentally conscious and would not take extra steps to make products that do not have microplastics,” said Mayse. “It would cost them more money and time to find alternatives. That is how our society works. Companies are just money motivated.”
The potential risks of microplastics have been researched for 20 years, specifically focusing on how they can harm marine life.
“If [plastic] ends up in the marine environment, they get ground up into smaller particles and eventually into microplastics,” said Calvo.
These microplastics may alter the food chain cycle among smaller marine organisms, like plankton. They grow more slowly and reproduce less successfully in the presence of microplastics.
“Microplastics play a big role in ocean pollution and end up in organisms without necessarily getting excreted from them,” said Matthew Gassman, freshman marine biology major. “It sits inside organisms and resides over time, which is not good at all.”
The effects of microplastics on humans are still being studied.
“The research is not clear at the moment. We are concerned it is a health risk, but there is no definitive proof,” said Calvo. “Sometimes we think materials are benign, and they are until we know more. That is true for a lot of things.”
Plasticizers, additives that make plastic flexible and soft, used in items such as clothes and flooring, are what make microplastics potentially dangerous for people’s health. They can yield negative reproductive, endocrinal and chronic effects.
“It is most definitely the plasticizers that cause the harm,” said Calvo.
These microplastics are increasingly difficult to avoid. They can be even found in drinking water.
“You cannot see them, so you cannot really know when they are there,” said Calvo. “Most government agencies are not testing for them in terms of drinking water quality.”
Efforts are being made to start monitoring microplastics in drinking water, with California being the first state to begin regulations.
It is important that people first become aware of what microplastics are, where they are found, and what it means for their health before any real change can be made.
“It is a topic that is not really discussed. I heard [about microplastics] for the first time just now,” says Pavan Patel, freshman exercise sports science major. “I would not be surprised if other people did not know about it either.”
Have you been in contact with microplastics? Some places that microplastics can be found:
Toothpaste, Seafood, Tap water, Bottled water, Sea salt, Honey, Mascara, Lipstick, Clothes
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