Microplastics can degrade into nanoplastics small enough to enter the body.
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Microplastics in our food and water can increase the amount of fat we digest and absorb, potentially increasing our risk of obesity, heart disease and other conditions associated with consuming too much fat.
When plastics are degraded by sunlight, water, landfill incinerators and other processes, they can form microplastics – fragments less than 5 millimeters long. “As they degrade, they get smaller and smaller, going down to the nanoscale,” says Philip Democrito at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There’s a nano…
Article amended on 31 March 2023
We removed a false statistic on the amount of nanoplastics humans consume each week