"Companies that profit from plastics are pushing forward laws to keep Americans hooked on disposable plastic products"

"On a cool, sunny day in March 2020, Ted Harris towed a large net from a boat in Clinton Lake in Kansas and retrieved a sample of microscopic debris in the water.

Harris, an associate research professor at the University of Kansas, was participating in a global study, published in 2023, that looked for microplastics in lakes all over the world.

Tiny plastic particles with a diameter less than 5 millimeters (nanoplastics are much smaller, ranging from 1 to 1,000 nanometers), these particles are harmful to tiny organisms in lakes like zooplankton, that mistake them for food. Larger animals like fish eat the zooplankton, causing the plastic particles to accumulate up the food chain. People can be exposed by eating fish from these lakes. Once in our bodies, they cannot be digested or broken down. “They either get passed through us or they get stuck somewhere inside,” Harris said."

Hilary Beaumont reports for Environmental Health News December 5, 2024. [2]