Characterization and Toxicology of Microplastics Using Fluorescence Microscopy

The inspiration for this research arose out of happenstance and out of personal interest.Microplastics, which are plastics smaller than 5 mm in size, are an ever increasing problem.With the decades-long mass use of plastics, coupled with natural degradation of plastics, plus products that use microplastics, we have a titanic impending environmental problem on our hands.We need to understand how these plastics affect the environment, how they affect our food supplies, and how we can take care of the problem.Several studies have found that microplastics negatively affect the ecosystem, partially due to plastic's ability to absorb and emit toxins.When plastics are ingested by animals, hazardous chemicals in the plastics may leach out and be absorbed into the animal's body (US EPA 1992b).The overall effect of microplastic toxin absorption is not yet fully understood.It is believed that marine organisms consume plastic particles after mistaking them for prey, then allowing the plastics into the food chain to make their way up to larger and larger organisms.Plastics also cause damage to animals through entanglement, malnutrition, suffocation, and decreased mobility (Marine Pollution Bulletin 2016).