New Research

[Anchor Lead]

Korean researchers have found how microplastics affect the human body. They have found evidence that microplastics can accumulate in embryos and cause toxicity.

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This is a gigantic plastic trash island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean... As time goes by, plastics become broken down into tiny particles that are hard to detect even through a microscope. Korean researchers exposed tropical fish that have organs similar to that of humans to microplastics. Microplastics marked with green fluorescent color can be seen permeating the nerves and organs. Microplastics were found to build up in large amounts in the yolk sac, which supplies nutrients to the embryo. The researchers also found that the smaller the plastic particles, the more easily they are absorbed by organs and accumulated.

[Soundbite] Chung Jin-young(Korea Research Inst. of Bioscience & Biotechnology) : "This finding is meaningful as it demonstrates how microplastics spread throughout the human body. It is the first study on the effects of nanoplastics."

The researchers found proof that microplastics damage mitochondria in cells and increase the toxicity of other substances.

[Soundbite] Cho Hyun-ju(Korea Research Inst. of Bioscience & Biotechnology) : "When we processed microplastics along with other environmental pollutants such as metal ions, we found that their toxicity increases."

The results of the study proving the hazards of microplastics have been published in the online edition of the science journal "Nanoscale."