Effect of Nanoplastics on Aquatic Ecosystems: Zebrafish Modeling

"As of the mid-twentieth century, objects made of plastic materials began to become a part of humankind’s daily life. It is estimated that there are around nine billion tons of plastic products on Earth. Unfortunately, today we have to face plastic pollution that is difficult to deal with because we cannot properly manage the waste management of this mass production. In this article, attention is drawn to the potential risk of nano-sized plastic fragments constantly released from both in-use and waste plastics. Plastics consist of polymer chains connected to each other by the weak Van der Waals interaction. This structure of plastics allows environmental stresses to break off continuous particles, including nano sizes, from the main material. Studies have proven that these nano-sized plastic particles, which are even included in the hydrological cycle, have a greater risk potential on living things than their larger counterparts. These studies have shown that nano-sized particles can enter the organism’s systems, spread and accumulate in their bodies, cause damage at the cellular level, negatively affect the organism’s behavior, and even cause cancer-related damage in the next generation. At this point, it is important to include nanoplastics within the scope of global plastic pollution. Although it seems very difficult to completely eliminate plastic pollution, we can minimize this exposure by taking simple precautions in our daily lives."