We have been obsessed with microplastics for years. There are more and more scientists who believe that there is something wrong

Up to 18 studies that affirmed the presence of microplastics in human organs they have just been challenged due to possible technical and control failures. And, although we have been obsessed with them for years, the truth is that it should not surprise us: we have known it almost from the beginning.

Studies suggesting its presence in arterial tissue or in the testicles they have been receiving public criticism from the beginning. And the famous study that talked about the presence of microplastics in the brain was pure scientific fraud.

None of this invalidates environmental concern, nor does it deny human exposure to these types of particles. It simply indicates that we have gone too far.

And what is there many people taking advantage of it.

What exactly happened? So far this decade, environmental contamination by microplastics has become a central issue that has not only generated a research boom, but has also promoted rules and regulations.

And it is logical, the global use of plastics (which reached 460 megatons in 2019) is on its way to tripling by 2060 and that perspective makes its impact an issue to take into account.

However, media interest is obscuring the fact that a good number of studies are being launched to make statements without a methodological solidity behind them to sustain them.

What really is the problem? In reality there are many problems. To begin with, the very term ‘microplastics’ is deliberately broad and confusing: we are talking about a myriad of things (fragments, fibers, films or particles) of numerous sizes and compositions. Its use is useful to be able to speak globally about the problem, yes; worse, it is generating in the population the idea of ​​”colored confetti” sneaking through the organs of animals and plants.

Then came everything else.

This is possible because this “everything else” has an explanation that is as simple as it is worrying. As Sergio Ferrer emphasized“the detection of plastics at these size scales is an extremely complex analytical process and the urgency to publish information about their presence in remote places (even in the human body) can favor the appearance of these high-profile publications.”

In other words, the problem is another. As Hannah Arendt said, we often do not know how to distinguish between a refuge and a trap. The (almost hysterical) concern about microplastics, the tendency to legislate in a hurry in response to the social mood and the lack of rigor of the media (problem in which it is inevitable that we include ourselves) have turned this topic into a trap.

Because, as I say, everything seems to indicate that (even though we don’t have a teaspoon of them in our brains) microplastics are a problem. All that remains is for us to accept the type of problem they really are, not to overreact and to take action on the matter.

Image | Naja Bertolt Jensen

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