Harmful Effects of Microplastics in Our Water Supply
- Published:
- Updated: January 17, 2025
Summary
Microplastics, tiny plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size, pose significant risks to the environment and human health. They originate from various sources like breakdown of larger plastic items and shedding of microbeads from personal care products. Once in water, microplastics persist for years, spreading through water and air, potentially harming aquatic life and wildlife. Microplastics contain toxic chemicals, posing risks to both animals and humans. Solutions include physical filtration, chemical treatments, and biodegradation, but prevention is key. Governments, organizations, and individuals must work together to reduce plastic use and improve wastewater treatment to mitigate microplastic pollution and protect water quality and human health.
Microplastics are plastic chips smaller than 5 millimetres in diameter, and they’re a rising issue in our water supply. These particles come from many sources and are harmful to the environment and to human beings. The pervasive presence of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems not only disrupts marine life but also poses significant risks to human health through contaminated water sources. As these tiny particles become increasingly integrated into the water supply, they can carry toxic pollutants and harmful additives, contributing to a cycle of microplastics and water contamination. Addressing this issue requires urgent collective action to reduce plastic usage and enhance waste management strategies.
Understanding Microplastics
Microplastics are microscopic plastic particles less than 5 millimetres across, that can be left behind for years. They’re made from all sorts of sources, from the degradation of large plastic items, the release of microbeads from body care products, to the emission of microfibers from fabrics and clothing.
Microbeads — which can be found in toothpaste, scrubs and shower gels — are a particularly toxic microplastics source. The microbeads that enter our waterways in these products, when used, get flushed down the drain and into our drinking water, where they can stay for decades. There is also a major contributor of microplastics in microfibers. Microfibers are tiny plastic fibres that come out of clothing and fabrics when they are washed. These fibres are small enough to bypass wastewater treatment plants and into our drinking water, where they can stay for years.
The Journey of Microplastics in Water
Once microplastics get into our water supply, they will last years and end up extending to other oceans and waters. That’s because microplastics aren’t biodegradable, they won’t degrade. The microplastics are also easily carried in the air and wind, which further disperse them in our atmosphere.
The dispersal of microplastics in water and air can have huge effects on the environment because they can get into the mouths of wildlife and aquatic animals, which will harm them and the ecosystems they live in. The movement of microplastics from one place to another can also lead to the transfer of dangerous chemicals (POPs, endocrine disrupting chemicals, EDCs) that will accumulate in the tissues of wildlife and aquatic organisms and eventually harm these animals and the environments they reside in.
The Health Risks of Microplastics
We don’t know the health impacts of drinking water that contains microplastics, but here are a few worries. The microplastics themselves are also suspected to be full of poisonous chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). These chemicals will escape from the microplastics and make their way into the skin of wild animals and fish, injuring them and the habitats they live in.
We’re also concerned about the human health implications of microplastics in water. Microplastics have even been found to move from water to the human body and accumulate in tissues and organs in a handful of cases. This accumulation of microplastics in the body can be a cause for all sorts of health problems from endocrine dysfunction to developmental problems to cancer.
Health hazards linked to microplastics in water are on the rise, and there is still a long way to go to know how well the particles might impact humans and the planet.
The Impact on Aquatic Life and Wildlife
Aquatic and wild animal health are particularly at risk from microplastics. There are microplastics in birds, fish and sea turtles. They can damage these species by clogging their intestines and starving them to death. Microplastics have even been identified in the tissues of phytoplankton and zooplankton – the foundation of the aquatic food web.
Animals and fishes that swallow microplastics can also swell in their bodies, transferring harmful chemicals from the particles to the animals. Such transmission of poisonous chemicals can damage the species and ecosystems that support them, with population decline and altered ecosystem dynamics.
The impact of microplastics in the environment can also be felt in the human body. The food that humans eat includes fish and shellfish, which are also microplastics. When the microplastics in seafood is swallowed, toxic chemicals are carried to the body and cause health issues.
Degradation of Microplastics in Water and its Effect on the Environment
Even the degradation of microplastics in water can be harmful to the environment. Microplastics dissolve in water and release toxins that further pollute our water supplies and the health of animals and plants.
The dissolution of microplastics in water can also result in the formation of microplastic particles, which are swallowed by wildlife and marine creatures and thereby perpetuated on this species and their environments. This release can have an effect on human health too as microplastic particles can also be carried from water into the body when eating seafood.
Solutions for Removing Microplastics from Water
Microplastics do not degrade, but there are already several technologies and techniques for purging the microplastics from water. These are physical filtration, chemical treatment and biodegradation. There are still many studies to do to find the best solutions for de-pollutioning water of microplastics, and keeping it as low as possible from harming our environment and health.
Filtration by physical processes like filters or screens can work well to remove microplastics from water. Such practices can be expensive and not always available in the countryside and the backcountry. There can also be chemical treatment, using chemicals to dissolve the microplastics, but this needs to be researched more carefully to make sure they’re safe and work.
A process called biodegradation (through bacteria or other organisms that degrade the microplastics) has already demonstrated efficacy at removing the microplastics from water. They need to be studied further to see which biodegradation processes are most efficient and which are most polluting.
Preventing the Introduction of Microplastics into Our Water Supply
There is no alternative for microplastics in our water that could be more environmentally and human health harmful than keeping them out of our water supply. This can mean limiting single-use plastics, switching to non-microbead products, and upgrading wastewater treatment to get rid of microplastics from the water before they seep into our drinking water.
Our water supply will also be less polluted by microplastics if we consume fewer single-use plastics (like plastic bags and water bottles). By using products other than those that have microbeads in them (bar soap, rather than shower gel), we also limit the presence of microplastics in our waterways.
And it’s also essential to work on sewage treatment to eliminate microplastics from water before they get to our taps in order to reduce their environmental and human health impacts. That can be done by filtration techniques, including membrane filtration and activated carbon filtration, which can help to remove microplastics from the wastewater. Improved wastewater treatment can also lower the concentration of toxic chemicals from microplastics and make them even less toxic to the environment and human health.
Governments and organizations too can contribute to keeping microplastics out of our drinking water. This includes regulations and laws to restrict the use of disposable plastics and microbead products, and funding and resources for the research and development of new technologies to purify water of microplastics.
Individuals can even help stop microplastics from getting into our water supply. That means reducing disposable plastics, replacing products that are not microbead-infused, and properly disposing of waste to ensure that microplastics don’t get into our waterways.
The Need for Further Research
There is still much that we don’t know about the environmental and human health effects of microplastics, and more needs to be done to establish the scope of those impacts, and to identify methods for safely removing these fragments from our water supply. It might be such things as research on the toxicities of microplastics and their health impacts, or new technologies and techniques to dewater microplastics.
– Governments, organisations and people can support this research by advancing studies and funding them, and by assisting with the development of new technologies and approaches to clean water of microplastics. Laws and regulations can also be enacted by governments to encourage more sustainable, environmentally friendly practices and products so that we don’t have microplastics swimming in our water supply.
We need more studies on microplastics and how they influence our environment and human health, because these particles can be dangerous to our ecosystems and societies. Together we can learn more about these particles and find ways to reduce their impact, save our water and keep our planet and communities healthy.
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