Microplastics React With Water, a New Study Says. That’s a Problem for Biology
Researchers have discovered that microplastics become chemically active when exposed to water, potentially creating harmful reactive oxygen species. These chemicals can damage biological structures like proteins and fats, posing a new threat to human and animal health.
Why it matters
This finding suggests that microplastics are more dangerous than previously thought, as they can cause biological damage without needing sunlight or other degradation agents.
The same was thought to be true of microplastics—those tiny pieces of debris that break off from larger plastic objects and which, according to numerous studies, have spread to virtually every ecosystem on the planet. But scientists at Columbia University and UC Berkeley have just discovered that water can make the surfaces of microplastics chemically active and turn them into a potential hazard.
According to the findings of the article published in Nature, this activity can trigger the spontaneous formation of chemicals capable of altering other molecules, like those that are essential for living organisms. The phenomenon, the authors note, occurs even under normal environmental conditions, without the need for sunlight or other agents that cause plastic degradation.
So how can microplastics be so reactive when bigger plastics generally aren’t? The scientists suggest this has to do with the greater available surface area for these reactions to occur.
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