Microplastics have probably been around longer than you

Microplastics aren’t just all over the news; they’re all over the planet, too. These tiny particles of plastic that never seem to break down have been found in honey, breast milk, and even Antarctica. They are so prevalent that scientists are actually having trouble finding control tissue samples for studies on our health. It’s a huge new problem on the rise – or is it?  

One group of scientists out of the Netherlands focused their latest study on better identifying just how long microplastics have been incorporated into our wildlife. The scientists chose a clever subject for study: 549 museum-preserved caddisfly larvae casings from decades past. When these fly larvae hatch in freshwater streams, they craft their own casings using nearby material to protect against predators, so these relics grant the scientists a look into the past environment. Through microscopy honing in on the bright color associated with plastics, they were able to identify incorporated microplastics in casings from as early as 1971. The study provides one of the oldest examples of microplastics found in non-urban freshwater systems, and it shifts the record of microplastic incorporation into caddisfly casings over 50 years. It also highlights the reason why plastic was praised upon its invention, but may haunt us today – it’s difficult to break down.

This work adds to the mounting evidence that microplastics are everywhere, including within our own bodies, but their potential detriment to our health is still poorly understood. And for the majority of the world population, microplastics have been around our entire lives, so if they are proven to be causal in human disease, we face a long road ahead.

This study was led by Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a PhD-candidate researcher in the laboratory of Menno Schilthuizen at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands.

Managing Correspondent: Morgan Glass

Press Article: Microplastics discovered in caddisfly casings from the 1970s suggest long-term contamination, Phys.org

Original Research Article: Half a century of caddisfly casings (Trichoptera) with microplastic from natural history collections, Science of the Total Environment

Image Credit: Microplastics, iStockPhotos