Biomaterials Science Can Offer a Valuable Second Opinion on Nature’s Plastic Malady

Microplastics are an emerging pollutant with many fundamental questions still left unresolved. Are they toxic? How do they change over time? How long do they persist? Environmental scientists are asking many of these questions about the fate and effects of plastics in the natural environment, while biomaterials scientists have been asking the same questions for years in another environment: the human body. The field of biomaterials encompasses all materials used in biomedical devices and therapies. (Biomaterials are not to be confused with bio-materials or biological materials, which are largely considered a class of materials with some natural origin.) Prior to the 1960s, the field of biomaterials relied on commercial plastics. Classic examples include the precursors of modern-day contact lenses and vascular grafts.