Research concludes microplastics accumulate in the body and may harm reproductive health

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Sydney University researcher Nick Chartres reviewed 3000 studies on the health effects of micro­plastics. The review was conducted by University of California.

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00:00We had a mix of human and also animal data, but primarily animal data was used, and what

00:07we found was we saw changes in things like organ length and function of the lung, but

00:15we also saw biological changes within the lung and also the colon, so these mechanistic

00:20changes which are linked to things like cancer.

00:24So we saw chronic inflammation quite high in the lung, and we also saw that quite high

00:28in the colon as well, consistently across all the studies that we identified, and this

00:33has been used now by different agencies around the world to identify predictors of cancer.

00:38This is important for people to understand, we have around 460 million metric tonnes of

00:43plastic being made each year, that's set to triple in the next 20 years, or next 30 years.

00:50We know that the primary proportion of plastic is from single use plastic, and 98% of that

00:55comes from fossil fuels.

00:57People need to understand that the fossil fuel industry is going to transition away

00:59from energy and transport in the next decade, obviously as we move away from it, and this

01:03is going to be the new revenue stream.

01:05So we're going to get exposed to more and more plastic, and as I said this bioaccumulates

01:08in our bodies, so we need to take action now and ban single use plastics.

01:11Just removing plastics from your environment at home is critical, that will reduce the

01:15exposure but again people need to understand the government needs to take action because

01:18we know this stuff is in our environment outside of our home, but yeah, remove as much plastic

01:22as you can at home, and obviously in food as well, try not to eat out of packets.

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