Water plays a crucial role in how tiny pieces of plastic enter our environment — and us
By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron
A researcher selects microplastics found in marine species at the Hellenic Marine Research Center in Anávissos, Greece, near Athens, July 15, 2025.
Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images
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If you read the research on microplastics, these pollutants seem as frightening as they are ubiquitous. Present throughout our body, our food and environmentmicroplastics and their ingredients have been linked to heart attacks, strokes, respiratory problems, fertility problems and death, to name just a few problems.
Yet despite these characteristics, scientists do not fully understand how all the tiny plastic filaments enter our environment. A study published last month in Scientific advances offers new clues about how water may contribute to their spread.
Scientists already knew that plastics degrade from exposure to sunlight and repeated weathering caused by waves, sand or other debris. But the new study suggests that contact with the water itself is also a factor: In marine and river environments, researchers have found that microbubbles can form on the surface of a piece of plastic, breaking it down and releasing tiny, virtually invisible pieces of plastic into the surrounding water.
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From there, nanoplastics and microplastics often enter the food chain and, therefore, us. An estimated 130 million tonnes of plastic waste enters our bodies and the environment every year, and this figure is on track to reach more than double by 2040.
The findings, the researchers write, could inspire future research on how to control the release of microplastics in everything. “Plastic degradation poses an invisible threat to the environment and human health,” said John Boland, professor in the school of chemistry at Trinity College Dublin and lead author of the study. a declaration. “Society urgently needs to wake up to the enormity of the challenge posed by our ubiquitous use of plastic. »
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