Microstrewth
While microplastics are present in the environment, they exist alongside countless other microparticulates such as dust, pollen, and cellulose fibers, most of which occur at far higher exposure levels that microplastics without causing public concern.
Toxicological studies show that the concentrations of microplastics used in many experiments are orders of magnitude above real-world exposure levels. Health risks inferred from such studies are not practically relevant.
Regulatory reviews continue to find no credible link between typical environmental microplastic exposure and harm to human health.
The widely repeated claim that microplastics take 400 to 1000 years to degrade is unsubstantiated and has no reliable scientific source.
Microplastics do not persist indefinitely. As particles become smaller, their surface area increases relative to volume, accelerating degradation through sunlight, oxidation, and microbial action. Once plastics degrade to microparticle size, degradation accelerates.
When degradation occurs, common microplastics do not break down into toxic substances.
It is logically inconsistent to argue that microplastics are both indestructible and simultaneously degrading into dangerous toxins.
The only credible argument of harm is that microplastics do seems to have done is pyschosomatically impacted the mental health of a good fraction of the chattering classes.
And for that I thank them; it’s a great way to calibrate everything else I hear, especially when it refers to a subject that I’m less able to dissemble.
offshore westerly 