One of the reasons plastic has become so ubiquitous is that, generally, it’s very chemically stable, meaning it does not readily react with the substances around it. That’s why this material is so often used for food packaging and water bottles.
The same was thought to be true of microplastics—those tiny pieces of debris that break off from larger plastic objects and which, according to numerous studies, have spread to virtually every ecosystem on the planet. But scientists at Columbia University and UC Berkeley have just discovered that water can make the surfaces of microplastics chemically active and turn them into a potential hazard.
According to the findings of the article published in Nature, this activity can trigger the spontaneous formation of chemicals capable of altering other molecules, like those that are essential for living organisms. The phenomenon, the authors note, occurs even under normal environmental conditions, without the need for sunlight or other agents that cause plastic degradation.
So how can microplastics be so reactive when bigger plastics generally aren’t? The scientists suggest this has to do with the greater available surface area for these reactions to occur.
“As plastic fragments into smaller and smaller particles, its surface area increases enormously,” Wei Min, a professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering at Columbia University, said in a press release. “Then microplastics change the water that surrounds them, generating high-energy, reactive radicals that very likely contribute to biological damage that we see in animals and potentially in humans as a result of microplastic exposure.”
Among these potentially dangerous chemical products—called reactive oxygen species—a variety known as hydroxyl radicals stands out. They are particularly dangerous because they can snatch electrons from the proteins and fats that make up cell membranes, disrupting their structure and function. These “are textbook examples of the kinds of molecules that can damage animal and human tissue,” added Naixin Qian, a postdoctoral researcher in Min’s lab who helped lead the research.
Our body has some defenses against this kind of damage. This is the biological function of the buzzy molecules known as antioxidants. These neutralize the reactive chemicals, but if the reactive compounds greatly outnumber antioxidants, this line of defense can be overwhelmed.
This can develop into a scenario called oxidative stress, leading to the damage of cells. Previous research had already identified oxidative stress among the cellular responses associated with exposure to microplastics, although the mechanisms responsible for this damage are not yet fully understood.
The extent to which microplastics have pervaded our bodies remains an open debate, with some of the more sensational findings having been called into question. But if even a small amount of microplastics are present in our tissues, they could be reacting with the water in our bodies.
The researchers were particularly concerned with the potential effects on blood, which is largely composed of water. If contact with this fluid can chemically activate the surfaces of microplastics, their presence inside the body could pose an additional danger beyond that of the pollutants they carry or release.
When the researchers exposed red blood cells extracted from mice to different types of microplastics, the cells became deformed and ruptured—a phenomenon known as hemolysis. The effects were greater with plastics that were more reactive with water, indicating that this activity was the cause of cellular damage.
Research into the effects of microplastics has long focused on other chemicals leaching from the particles or on their physical effects, often considering the plastic itself chemically inert. The larger pieces generally are, but these findings challenge the assumption that what is true of plastic on a grand scale is also true of the microscopic pieces it breaks down into.
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.