We already know where the microplastics get the lettuce that you eat in the salad: from the air

At this point of 2025, the idea that everything (Absolutely everything) It is full of microplastics. Plants are no exception; nor, of course, the vegetables we consume. The matter is that, for a long time, we have assumed that these compounds entered them through roots, soil and water.

It is not exactly like that.

No? And where do they come from? Well, a few days ago a Chinese research group published in the magazine ‘Nature’ The first solid evidence that supports the idea that one of the main routes for these microplastics is air.

And it is in a lot of environments: Tianjin scientists collected all kinds of leaves, herbs and vegetables of urban and rural environments. In all, they found plastic particles in the foliar fabric. In the most polluted sites, concentrations of up to 10,000 nanograms per gram of dry weight. Above all, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polystyrene (PS).

And where do they enter? That is something that is yet to be confirmed, but everything seems to sign up for stomata (small openings formed by cells) and cutt it (a membrane covered by insoluble waxes, “Ideal for absorbing microplastics“).

Once inside, the compounds move inside the plants using the vascular beam, are distributed by different tissues and accumulate in hair structures called ‘trichomes’, a kind of fitological ‘sinks’.

A big problem … The Chinese study demonstrates that accumulated absorption and accumulation of atmospheric microplastics It is generalized. But there are keys that help us better understand the circulation of these compounds: for example, that the outdoor plants had between 10 and 100 times more pet than those grown in greenhouse.

And that the efficiency of the absorption of the leaves is extremely low (around 0.05%); That is why this route has been discarded repeatedly. However, given the little evidence we have about how microplastics enter the soil and water, this route begins to take shape. And, we like it or not, right now it is very difficult to control.

And, of course, even if we don’t know what they do … In our body, yes that data like these raised many doubts about what happens if we discover that (as we intuit) is a serious problem. Because, in short, Our control capacity It is extremely limited.

Image | Killari Hotaru | Kasturi Laxmi Mohit

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