The Truth About Microplastics - Dr Rhonda Patrick

What have you been interested in recently? You're always learning new stuff.

Yeah, I think most recently I've had a real interest in ultra-processed foods, in plastic, microplastics, their associated chemicals, what they're doing to human health. That's, that's been my latest obsession.

Okay, microplastics. Teach me about them-

What are they?

... what are they? What do they do?

(inhales deeply) So, microplastics, I mean, we're all familiar with plastic, you know, if you take a look in your refrigerator or your pantry, I mean, almost everything is packaged in some kind of plastic container. (inhales deeply) Plastic breaks down over time, right? So things that can accelerate that breakdown would be, like, heat, exposure to, exposure to oxygen. And so that breakdown sheds plastic particles into whatever is being contained in that plastic container; food, beverages, whatever. So, um, microplastics, they sort of vary in size, anywhere between five mic, so five microns or micromille, micromillimeters to 100 nanome- meters in size. And when they're, like, five micromille, micromillimeters, that's like something that would be equivalent to a size of, like, a grain of rice. You can see it. When you get down to the 100 nanomillimeter range, I mean, that's like a thousand times smaller than a grain of rice, so you're not going to see it, right? And that's... Honestly, those are actually technically nanoplastics, but we all just kind of call them microplastics just for simplicity. Um, and these microplastics are getting into food, um, as we consume whatever food they're contained in, whether it's a beverage or, you know, uh, disposable food. You're digesting it, and they can be absorbed, right? Now, not all of them are absorbed. I think, I think, you know, it's... There's some studies sh- saying that we, uh, we basically consume anywhere between, um, you know, hundreds to thousands of particles a day. So, how much of that we absorb? Not all of it, you know, fraction of it.

Mm-hmm.

But it's a lot of particles that we're absorbing every day. And, um, you know, the- these microplastics are in our water, so water is contaminated with them. If you think about water treatment plants, you know, wastewater treatment plants are treating the water for pathogens, right? Viruses, bacteria. They're not treating them for plastics-

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

... that are getting into the water. And our water sources are contaminated for a variety of reasons, not to mention if you, if you're, you know, turning on your faucet and getting water through the sink. Oftentimes, the water is tran- transported through these pipes that are made of, you know, PVC, which breaks down. The, you know, there, there's plastic in that and it breaks down over time-

Mm-hmm.

... and sheds microplastic into your water.

Mm-hmm.

So water is another source. Of course, if you're drinking bottled water out of plastic bottles, um, that's another added source of microplastics as well. And so, um, microplastics themselves are... Um, it, it, there's a growing body of evidence in terms of what they're doing to human health, and we can talk about that.