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Plastic Not-So-Fantastic: A One Health Approach to a Growing Crisis
Summary
This One Health perspective reviews how microplastics affect environmental, animal, and human health, synthesizing evidence that these particles disrupt ecosystems and accumulate in tissues across species, underscoring the need for an integrated response.
The threat of microplastics has recently taken the media by storm, causing panic in the general public, and a drive to push research forward within the scientific community. Plastic pollution has been a growing issue ever since its invention in the early 1900s. Microplastics are small plastic particles that come about as a result of building materials, beauty products, or by shedding off larger pieces of plastic. These particles have had a profound impact on our environment, as well as the animals in it. Microplastics can be found in soil, crops and in the sea. They have been found in both domestic and wild animals. Recent studies have even found them in several different human tissues. This issue seems to be impacting all areas of life on earth, and yet a fully unified approach that benefits humans, animals and the environment, is yet to be considered. A One Health approach may be the key to curbing this problem, to try and ensure a more sustainable future.
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