Microplastic in our Bodies

### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 22nd August 2024 ###
* Key Players: Prof Sedat Gundogdu, Matthew Campen, Bethanie Carney Almroth, Kimberly White, Keith Schneider, Anna Cavazzini, *

Link to original article , Link to article on microplastics

Dear Editor,

I found myself nodding all the way through Douglas Main’s article on microplastics in our bodies (The Guardian, 21st August 2024, link below) and, indeed, back in the 1990’s a friend of mine had testicular cancer and the doctor didn’t hesitate to tell him that it came from the chemicals in plastic drinking bottles.

However, I think that, alongside the points mentioned, we need to urgently focus in on two further sources which are omnipresent but frequently and repeatedly overlooked …

Back in July 2022 Chris Michael published an article in the Guardian (link below) with results from studies indicating that ocean microplastic is made up of 35% fluff washed out of synthetic clothing, 28% particles abraded from the tread of tyres and 24% city dust (mostly scuffed from the surface of roads, I assume). Indeed, here in Germany alone over one hundred thousand tonnes of tread is scuffed from tyres each year: Invisible particulate matter which then wafts around (being breathed in by us) before landing on fields or being washed down the drains onward to the sea.

So, if the oceans contain those proportions of microplastic, surely we can extrapolate that these sources are similarly or even more(?) critical to our health than bottles and packaging are? With this being true we obviously need to massively reduce both synthetic clothing and road transport!

It sounds like a “big deal” but surely wearing natural fibres and having a slower pace-of-life (with much more local and seasonal economies, farming and manufacturing) could actually enhance our quality of life. That must be worth considering!

Yours,
Alan Mitcham