The lungs of birds contain significant quantities of microplastics, illustrating the extent to which the air is now contaminated with plastic pollution.
According to a new study out of China, lung tissue from birds contains hundreds of particles of commonly used forms of plastic like polyethylene.
“Birds serve as important indicators of environmental conditions,” said one of the study’s authors.
“They help us understand the state of the environment and make informed decisions about conservation and pollution control.”
The Chinese scientists studied over 50 different species of wild bird in western China.
They took samples of lung tissue from the birds and tested it using infrared technology to detect and count microplastics. Pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass-spectrometry was also used to identify smaller nanoplastics, which can enter the lungs through the bloodstream.
Hundreds of microplastics were found in the bird lungs, with an average of 221 particles per species and 416 particles per gram of lung tissue. The most common types identified were chlorinated polyethylene, used for insulating pipes and wires, and butadiene rubber, a synthetic material in tires.
There are currently no “safe” established levels of exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics.
More than nine billion tons of plastic are estimated to have been produced between 1950 and 2017, with over half of that total having been produced since 2004. The vast majority of plastic ends up in the environment in one form or another, where it breaks down, through weathering, exposure to UV light and organisms of all kinds, into smaller and smaller pieces—microplastics and then even smaller nanoplastics. These are called “secondary” microplastics, because they become small, but there’s also a whole class of “primary” microplastics which are small by design, like so-called “microbeads” used in cosmetics.
Within our homes, microplastics are mainly produced when synthetic fibres from clothes, furnishings and carpets are shed. They accumulate in large quantities in dust and float around in the air, which we then inhale.
New studies are appearing at a steady pace, linking microplastic exposure to virtually every chronic disease, from irritable bowel syndrome, obesity and autism, to cancer, Alzheimer’s and infertility.
Microplastic exposure has been linked to a terrifying decline in male fertility—a so-called “spermageddon” scenario—where within the next quarter century, it could be impossible for the human race to reproduce by natural means, because men produce so few sperm.
If you’d like to know more about microplastics, including ways to protect yourself and your loved ones against exposure to them, read our exclusive primer, “the Microplastic Menace,” here.