"Microplastics have infiltrated both our bodies - where they're found in our organs, bodily fluids, and even brains - and every corner of the Earth, from deep inside sealed caves to the depths of the Mariana Trench. Now, an alarming new data point: asdoctors urgently investigate the effects of all that foreign material in our bodies, scientists are finding that they're already wreaking havoc on much smaller organisms."
"That's despite also being given the option of eating natural food instead - which showed that the crickets were initially unable to distinguish between plastic and real food,then became drawn to the plastic-contaminated stuff. "When given a choice between uncontaminated and plastic-contaminated food, crickets first had no preference for uncontaminated food but then significantly shifted towards the plastic-contaminated food after nine days," the paper reads. The larger they grew, the larger their mouths swelled as well."
Microplastics are present in human organs, bodily fluids, brains, and remote environments worldwide. Crickets fed microplastic-contaminated food increased in size by about twenty-five times over seven weeks. Crickets initially showed no preference between contaminated and uncontaminated food, then shifted toward contaminated food after nine days. Increased body size coincided with enlarged mouthparts, enabling ingestion of larger plastic particles. Crickets fragmented ingested microplastics into nanoplastics during digestion, creating smaller particles that are harder to detect and more environmentally persistent. Similar negative effects of microplastic consumption occur in other invertebrates such as marine snails and earthworms.
Read at Futurism
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