Microplastics in water reportedly generated hydroxyl radicals in lab tests

Testing six powdered plastics in water

ScienceAlert reported on research published in Nature in which researchers used laboratory experiments, analytical techniques, and calculations to examine six common commercial plastics in powdered form. According to the report, contact between the microplastics and water produced hydroxyl free radicals. The experiments also found lysozyme protein clumping and warping and fragmentation of mouse-derived red blood cells in the free-radical-producing process.

The reported experiments do not provide a before-to-now comparison of microplastic exposure or health outcomes outside the laboratory.

The reported work adds laboratory evidence that six common powdered plastics can generate hydroxyl radicals when in contact with water, rather than behaving as chemically inert particles under those test conditions.

The reported result challenges the assumption that microplastics are chemically inert in water and identifies a proposed route by which they could contribute to biological damage. The evidence described is limited to laboratory conditions; it does not establish effects in humans or real-world exposure levels.