Abstract:
Microplastic have caused issues that have always been a part of the environment and
human health, however recently many scientists have begun to unexpectedly find microplastics
in their experiments, this lead a series of scientists to investigate and question the amount of
microplastics that they find in a small area. However as scientists began to investigate how
microplastics travel they also began to uncover issues about the harmful impacts that
microplastics may cause to humans and the environment. In order to specifically see the steps
and methods that scientists used to uncover these truths, there are 3 articles in which each article
explains how scientists discovered microplastics and what experiments they did to see the
harmful effects of microplastics.
Introduction:
Microplastics are one of the major components that are affecting human health. This is
due to the pollution that has been entering our bodies bit by bit, causing build up in our bodies
and causing fatal diseases such as cancer and other harmful diseases. Studies have shown that
microplastics have been going on for many years and have had a negative impact on people’s
health, experiments are showing that microplastics is starting to become one of the major reasons
to water pollution and to some human diseases such as cancer, and other bacterial diseases that
are caused by inhaling microplastics in our bodies. This has led scientists such asJanice Brahney
who is a watershed scientist at Utah State University, and other scientists to propose that they
want to investigate more about how microplastics travel through places. The first article
“Scientists race to study microplastic pollution in the atmosphere’ makes rhetorical decisions
based on the experiments and results that lead to new discoveries that she has found on
microplastics, while the second article “Thousands of Tons of Microplastics Are Falling from
the Sky” also makes rhetorical decisions with a group of scientists analyzing wind patterns to see
where microplastics land depending on the climate of the region. Whereas the third article “From
Fish to Humans, A Microplastic Invasion May Be Taking a Toll” explains how microplastics are
a threat to organs and bloodstreams, and how microplastics are passed down from one organism
to the next.
What scientists found out about microplastics being in the air.
Many scientists such as Janice Brahney coincidentally came across microplastics in their
experiments and were astonished as to how many microplastics were found. The observational
study led to the rise of questions and curiosity to how microplastics travel. Scientists have been
finding microplastics in sudden experiments that are not related to microplastics, this has caused
curiosity to investigate several aspects as to where microplastics come from.” In 2017,
biogeochemist Janice Brahney was collecting dust deposited in remote wilderness areas in the
western US, containing more than the soil particles she was expecting. Under the microscope
were “enormous amounts of plastic,” the Utah State University researcher says. There were
fibers, spheres, and chunks of the stuff, in all different colors.” (Bourzac,2022). “Researchers
spent more than a year collecting microplastics from 11 national parks and wilderness areas in
the western U.S. They separately examined the particles that settled on dry days and those that
fell along with rain or snow” (Hershberger,2020). Scientists are trying to discover the reason
behind how plastic is able to travel in the air.
Micro Plastics and their effects on climate change
This also led to a series of experiments because scientists were wondering if plastic can
be found in other organisms and in humans. Many scientists including Janice began to conduct
experiments where they used buckets “They separately examined the particles that settled on dry
days and those that fell along with rain or snow. more than 1,000 metric tons of
microplastics—the weight of 120 million to 300 million plastic water bottles—fall on protected
lands in the country’s western region each year” (Hershberger,2020). These series of experiments
concluded that microplastics could travel long distances through the air. Janice Brahney began to
investigate more in the dust cycle, and found out that “the effects of pollution from nearby
cities—and could better understand the “plastic cycle” that carries synthetic materials across the
planet, just as the “dust cycle” transports dust” (Hershberger,2020).
As these results began to prove that microplastics could travel long distances through the
air, scientists began to realize that these pollutants have been circling the earth for so many years
and could have fatal consequences for human and environmental health. “researchers looked at
ombrotrophic peat—a plant that is “cloud fed,” meaning it gets nutrients and water from the air.
These plants are extremely isolated and do not receive nutrients or pollution from runoff,
erosion, the subsurface, or other sources. So any pollution deposited in this peat would have to
come from the atmosphere”(Bourzac,2022). Scientists began to analyze the growth of the peat
over time and realized that “he peat, which grows in layers over time, forming a sedimentary
record of atmospheric pollution over time. They found microplastic pollution dating back to the
1960s” (Bourzac,2022). As scientists detected that the material that is revolving around the earth
is harmful to the human lung. Scientists like Steve Allen state that microplastics “carry all sorts
of pesticides, heavy metals and all the other chemicals that we’ve made over time”
(Hershberger,2020. This can begin to affect a human’s lungs causing fatal diseases such as
cancer, and can also cause physical damage, such as inflammation, caused by particles jabbing
and rubbing against organ walls if microplastics enter the bloodstream.

Microplastics in the air and how they can affect human health through
entering the human body
There are many ways that microplastics enter the human body; they can be passed down
through organisms that we eat such as fish and other sea creatures. Since microplastics compare
to a grain of rice “they can be ingested by a wide range of creatures, from the plankton that form
the basis of the marine food chain to humans”(Thompson,2018). This shows how microplastics
are affecting both the environment and human health. In addition to this, Browne conducted a
study to show that although some people might think that microplastics can easily leave the body
however Browne’s experiment was that “He tested the idea by placing mussels in water tanks
spiked with fluorescent-tagged microplastic particles smaller than a human red blood cell, then
moved them into clean water. For six weeks he harvested the shellfish to see if they had cleared
the microplastics. The particles “were still in them at the end of those trials” (Thompson,2018).
In conclusion, it shows that microplastics do not leave the human body through excretion and it
may also risk entering the bloodstream and other organs. This is a threat to human health because
not only will it cause fatal diseases, but it will also cause liver damage.
Conclusion:
Microplastics is an issue that is beginning to spread and impact human and environmental
health. Luckily, many scientists are beginning to investigate and find out ways of how it’s
spreading and what diseases it can cause. Although there is no sign of a solution on how to
prevent microplastics, scientists should still continue to investigate and find way to raise
awareness so that the people who are able to save the people and the environment are aware of
what’s happening.
Works cited
Cen.acs.org. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from
https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/Scientists-race-study-microplastic-pollution/100/i7
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/thousands-of-tons-of-microplastics-are-falling
-from-the-sky/
Hershberger, S. (2020, June 11). Thousands of tons of microplastics are falling from the
Sky. Scientific American. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/thousands-of-tons-of-microplastics-are-falling-from-t
he-sky/

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