Why microplastics are considered dangerous for humans?

In a study conducted by Orb Media, a non-profit organisation based in Washington, 82.4 per cent of India’s tap water was found to be contaminated with microplastics.

State University of New York in 2018 took samples from 19 global cities including Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi and found that 90 per cent of bottled water sold worldwide contained tiny pieces of plastic.  Even popular table salt brands were found to have microplastics as discovered by a two-member team from IIT-Bombay’s Centre of Environmental Science and Engineering.

Other than the well-known impacts of microplastics on our marine ecology and oceans, daily use of personal care products that contain microbeads pose serious harm to us.

Cosmetics are dangerous for they open skin pores, allowing way for bacteria and other pollutants. These microbeads can get stuck in the eyes and also get lodged in the eyelid, thereby injuring the cornea. The abrasive material used in toothpaste can get stuck in the gums and bone holding the teeth, trapping bacteria and leading to gingivitis, bleeding from the gums and weakening of teeth.

Plastic can take hundreds to thousands of years to decompose depending on the type of plastic and where it has been dumped.

Some marine species such as zooplanktons show preferential ingestion of smaller particles, making them easier to enter the food chain and their conversion to fast-sinking faecal pellets.

Over the past few years, various news reports have shown that marine animals such as whales, seabirds and turtles unknowingly ingest plastic and often suffocate to death.

When microplastics term was first introduced?

The term "microplastics" was introduced in 2004 by Professor Richard Thompson, a marine biologist at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom.

Microplastics are common in our world today. In 2014, it was estimated that there are between 15 and 51 trillion individual pieces of microplastic in the world's oceans, which was estimated to weigh between 93,000 and 236,000 metric tons.

Primary microplastics are small pieces of plastic that are purposefully manufactured.They are usually used in facial cleansers and cosmetics, or in air blasting technology. In some cases, their use in medicine as vectors for drugs was reported.Microplastic "scrubbers", used in exfoliating hand cleansers and facial scrubs, have replaced traditionally used natural ingredients, including ground almonds, oatmeal, and pumice. Primary microplastics have also been produced for use in air blasting technology. This process involves blasting acrylic, melamine, or polyester microplastic scrubbers at machinery, engines, and boat hulls to remove rust and paint.

Secondary plastics are small pieces of plastic derived from the breakdown of larger plastic debris, both at sea and on land. Over time, a culmination of physical, biological, and chemphotodegradation, including photodegradation caused by sunlight exposure, can reduce the structural integrity of plastic debris to a size that is eventually undetectable to the naked eye.This process of breaking down large plastic material into much smaller pieces is known as fragmentation.

Where these microplastics came from?

The mass production of plastic has made several sectors dependent on its use for its durable nature and ease of use. But the catch, as we all know, is that plastic gets accumulated in our environment. An offshoot of the problem of such accumulation is the generation of microplastics — caused either due to reasons such as disintegration of plastic bags, PET bottles, particles from wear and tear of tyres or dumped fishing gear — among other things.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines microplastics as plastic particles smaller than 5 millimetre.

Microplastics are intentionally added in primary sources such as personal care products and clothing products; or secondary sources that are formed by fragmentation of plastic over a period of time.

Of various sources of microplastics, primary sources that wash off microfibres and microbeads into water channels can be controlled. The release of microfibres from clothing is avoidable, as its wash off is not regular and can be reduced by mandated performance standards for domestic washing machines and industrial laundries.

But certain cosmetics and personal care products that contain abrasives and exfoliating material end up in our drains and reach water bodies.

We generally assume that plastic waste disposed into a water channel will not impact us. However, studies indicate that microplastics become part of the marine food chain and get retained in the tissue of fish, which is ultimately consumed by humans.

Many organisms in the oceans remain starved due to presence of such particles in their digestive tracts or because of a damaged stomach lining. Studies have shown a change in reproductive behaviour in fish where microplastics have caused impaired synthesis of hormones required for egg formation.

Who had  become the first state to ban the cosmetic containing microplastics?

 In the US, some states have taken action to mitigate the negative environmental effects of microplastics. Illinois was the first US state to ban cosmetics containing microplastics.On the national level, the Microbead-Free Waters Act 2015 was enacted after being signed by President Barack Obama on December 28, 2015. The law bans "rinse-off" cosmetic products that perform an exfoliating function, such as toothpaste or face wash. The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017 ban the production of any rinse-off personal care products (such as exfoliants) containing microbeads. This particular law denotes specific penalties when it is not obeyed. Those who do not comply are required to pay a fine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched its "Trash-Free Waters" initiative in 2013 to prevent single-use plastic wastes from ending up in waterways and ultimately the ocean.EPA collaborates with the United Nations Environment Programme–Caribbean Environment Programme (UNEP-CEP) and the Peace Corps to reduce and also remove trash in the Caribbean Sea.EPA has also funded various projects in the San Francisco Bay Area including one that is aimed at reducing the use of single-use plastics such as disposable cups, spoons and straws, from three University of California campuses.

On September 9, 2018, The Ocean Cleanup launched the world's first ocean cleanup system, 001 aka "Wilson", which is being deployed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Clean Oceans Initiative is a project launched in 2018 by the public institutions European Investment Bank, Agence Française de Développement and KfW Entwicklungsbank. The organisations will be providing up to €2 billion in lending, grants and technical assistance until 2023 to develop projects that remove pollution from waterways (with a focus on macroplastics and microplastics) before it reaches the oceans.

How recent studies tell about the pollution level in river ganga?

For the study, samples of Ganga’s water were collected from Haridwar, Kanpur and Varanasi and microplastics were found in all of them. Apart from microplastics, there were other kinds of plastics as well such as single-use plastic and secondary plastic products. Of the samples, those taken at Varanasi had the highest concentration of plastic pollution. Further, the study notes that untreated sewage from densely populated cities across the river’s course, along with industrial waste and religious offerings that are wrapped in non-degradable plastic add a significant amount of pollutants into the river. As the river flows, these waste and plastic materials break down further and are eventually carried into the Bay of Bengal and then into the ocean which is the “ultimate sink”of all plastics that are used by humans.

“Essentially all along microplastics are flowing into the river system. It does reflect or suggest a direct linkage between the poor state of both solid and liquid waste management; hence it is critically important to initiate steps to remediate it.

Ganga has the largest river basin in terms of catchment area in the country and constitutes about 26 percent of India’s landmass spread across 11 states, which supports 43 percent of the population.

That the holy river Ganga is polluted is not a recent discovery, in fact, efforts to clean it have been ongoing for over 40 years. Most of them have focussed on creating sewage treatment capacities in the major urban centres along the river.

In May 2015, the government approved the Namami Gange (which receives a 100 percent funding from the central government) programme to clean and protect the river. Programmes launched before this include the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) in 1985, the IIT Consortium (2011) for water diversion and effective treatment, and the National Mission for Clean Ganga in 2011.

However, the Toxics Link study says that not only do none of these plans address pollution caused by microplastics but even otherwise these programs and schemes launched over the past decades on which millions of rupees have been spent so far, have yielded “little success”.