Microplastics Science Is Doing Exactly What It Should.

The biggest threat isn’t scientific uncertainty, since there’s a considerable amount of scientific consensus that there is plastic in us. The biggest threat is weaponized uncertainty used to delay regulations.

“Microplastics are everywhere, and they’re harming us.”

“Actually, maybe not.”

“Hold on, that study might be flawed.”

“Bombshell… the whole field is in doubt.”

www.theguardian.com

Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’

The recent article in The Guardian that sparked this debate focuses on a real issue. In our research studying microplastics in the environment and animal studies, measuring micro- and nanoplastics in human tissue is incredibly hard. It is particularly difficult when researchers are looking for very small particle sizes, where laboratory contamination from airborne sources becomes harder to rule out. This is especially the case in human tissue:

www.commondreams.org

​The biggest threat isn’t scientific uncertainty, since there’s a considerable amount of scientific consensus that there is plastic in us. The biggest threat is weaponized uncertainty used to delay regulations.

mikroplastik.org

The Microplastic Research Group’s response to The Guardian feature Recent media coverage, in particular The Guardian’s article "A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body", has suggested that parts of microplastics research may be flawed. From the perspective of researchers working in this field, this framing risks distorting how science actually progresses.