Micro- and Nanosized Plastic: An Alarming Threat to One’s Health

Plastics are one of the most widely used man-made material across all fields currently. Every year approximately 12.7 million tons of plastics are released into the environment globally. These plastics breakdown into minute particles via biotic and abiotic factors and form smaller plastic particles like microplastics (5mm in size) which get accumulated in the soils, land and few also reach the water bodies and cause harm to the biotic species in environment. These microplastics are ubiquitous in nature and are widespread across all environments including waste water streams, seashores, oceans, lakes, soil, lands, frozen ice areas, remote mountain regions, atmospheric dust etc. As they are tiny in size can be easily ingested by species in the eco-system and cause toxic effect on them. Experimental analysis of various microplastics have been reported to induce oxidative stress, cause cellular/DNA damage on the tested species. Few studies states that the endocrine system in fishes were altered as the microplastic concentration increased. Absorption of microplastics displayed reduced shoot length in the aquatic plants and decreased seed germination in few plants. Reports state that a person can intake approximately 37-100 microplastic particles per year via table salt. Further, few analyses demonstrate interfere of microplastics with the circulatory system and reach liver causing adverse effects. Also, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory systems have been affected by the intervention of microplastics. This report elucidates the toxic effect of microplastics pollution on terrestrial and aquatic plants, animals as well as human in eco-system.