Episode 32: Microplastics

Microplastics are everywhere: there are teeny-tiny plastic particles in your drinking water, your food, your air - and perhaps even in your internal organs. How worried should you be?

In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart look into the research on microplastics, covering all the reasons that the health effects of microscopic particles are not straightforward to study. They also look in detail at a scary new study that apparently found, according to one headline, that microplastics “could raise [your] risk of stroke and heart attack”.

Russian serfs! Railroad tunnels! Silkworms! The Zika virus! What do they all have in common? They’re all the subjects of fascinating, data-rich articles in the latest issue of Works in Progress magazine. We’re proud to say that Works in Progress sponsors The Studies Show.

Show notes

* The website of The Ocean Cleanup: the org removing vast amounts of macroplastic from the seas, and stopping it getting there in the first place

* Zebrafish study showing how dyes can leach out of microplastics and cause confusion for researchers

* Study on the effects of the solvent/dispersant, as well as the characteristics of microplastics, on cells

* Review study noting the problem of bouyancy for in vitro microplastic studies

* Review of health effects of microplastics, with a list of methodological problems for the field (and suggestions for how to solve them)

* Another even more recent review

* Widely-cited 2017 study of mice and microplastics…

* …strongly criticised in a follow-up letter

* The new NEJM study on microplastics, carotid artery plaques, and health

* Coverage in the Guardian, The Conversation, and Medical Xpress

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe