How Plastic particles Terrorize the Air and Lodge into your Lungs

@healthbiztips health blog health hazards healthbiztips microplastic plastic plastic pollution

How Plastic particles Terrorize the Air and Lodge into your Lungs

6:03 PM

How Plastic particles Terrorize the Air and Lodge into your Lungs | photo credit: Stephen Leonardi @stephenleo1982 @unsplash

How Plastic particles Terrorize the Air and Lodge into your Lungs | Healthbiztips

Healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan | health blog

Microplastic or tiny plastic particles has polluted not just the land and sea, but also the air we breath. How come this happen?

Let's take a look at a common household: plastic storage boxes, food containers, water bottles, dishware, pipes, laptop case, device charger, children toys, and many others. Seems all harmless right? Although, they seem solid enough to contain themselves, in the presence of heat, friction, and even light, small plastic particles can dislodge and mix with room air.

Since these microscopic plastic particles are easily suspended, studies found that air indoor has a relatively higher concentration of these microscopic plastic particles than the outside. You know what that means? Plastic pollutes your supposedly safe haven.


That's not all, we have a lot more plastic than we realize. Did you know that synthetic fabric dominates the clothing and textile industry to such an extent that it comprises more than half our garmens, but guess what's in it--plastic! Polyester is notably the main offender. Turns out plastic is winning all sorts of race because it has such outstanding qualities, namely it's cheap but durable. Chances are, you're wearing one without even realizing it.

If you look closer into those fibers that make up you clothe, they don't all seem willing to stay there, do they?

Let's turn to personal care products. Yes, those stuffs people apply on their skin. Microbeads are plastic particles which are even smaller than microplastics and they are added to facial and skincare products like exfoliating facial wash, soap, and toothpaste.

While a microplastic is less than 5 millimeters in size,  a microbead is less than 1 millimeter.

Once microscopic plastic is inhaled by a human, it can lodge deep inside the lungs, however it can not be removed by the mere act of exhalation. These plastic particles can cause a range of health problems such as the destruction of lung tissues, asthma attack and increased risk of cancer.

Moreover, microplastic can find it's way into the bloodstream, by the same token breathed air is transported into the blood, and end up accumulating in various internal organs.


Plastic is everywhere. We see an emerging era of plastic pollution, an infestation which keeps getting worse as years goes by.

So you see, plastic is indeed in every single one of us and that may very well be the reality if these things aren't regulated enough. With convenience comes dire consequence.

How can we enjoy our stay in this planet without destroying it?

Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria" - Healthbiztips

@healthbiztips health blog healthbiztips plastic plastic pollution

Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria" - Healthbiztips

3:18 AM

Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria"

Plastic is not something most bacteria would want as a meal. But, this one right here is not your typical microbe. It's a fascinating bacteria famed for it's appetite for plastic--Ideonella sakaiensis.

Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria" - Healthbiztips

@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan

Each year, millions of tonnes of plastic find their way into the ocean. In fact, the oceans hold billions of pounds of plastics. When you reflect on these staggering numbers, you'll realize that solving Earth's plastic pollution is almost impossible. Turning on plastic-eating bacteria can revolutionize the way we dispose plastics.

Ideonella sakaiensisi 201-F6 is first discovered in Sakai, Japan in 2016. It releases enzymes which speeds up the breakdown of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a type of plastic commonly used in water bottles. This bacteria survive using plastic as it's main energy source, and in the process, turns the harmful PET plastic into environmentally friendly by-products.

Ideonella sakaiensisi 201-F6 releases two enzymes known as  PETase and  MHETase which degrade PET plastic into environmentally-friendly by-products.

Could these germs be the solution to the massive plastic pollution that terrorize our lands and seas?

Plastic is close to Forever

Nothing lasts Forever, but plastic could be the closest thing.

Let's take a look into one of the most common disposable plastic product we commonly encounter--plastic bottles. Did you know that a plastic water bottle have an average lifespan of 450 years. Meaning to say, that person who negligently thrown away a plastic bottle on the river has just dumped Earth with a garbage that can outlive his grandchildren's generations. Multiply the number by millions of people and you get a unfathomable plastic problem.

Bacteria eating plastic Ideonella sakaiensisi can surprisingly speed up the process of degrading PET plastic into just a matter of days. PET plastic is the most common polyester plastic in the world.

The ability of bacteria to produce PETase enzyme to break down PET plastic to harness it as their energy source is believed to be a recent evolutionary feat that highlights just how extraordinary bacteria can adapt to their environment to survive and thrive.

Making things even better, scientists working on this plastic-eating bacteria have accidentally introduced a mutation which enhances the bacteria's ability of digest PET plastic.

Microplastics

As time goes by, plastics in the ocean gets degraded into microplastics (less than 5mm), but being microscopic doesn't mean these things are harmless. Microplastics hunts our seas and even deep oceans. It has become a worldwide infestation to the extent that anyone eating seafood should expect  they are also consuming microscopic plastics.

Resources:

S. Yoshida, et al. (2016). A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate). Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aad6359.

Austin, Harry P et al. “Characterization and engineering of a plastic-degrading aromatic polyesterase.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 115,19 (2018): E4350-E4357. doi:10.1073/pnas.1718804115