Plasticosis

The World Has a Plastic Problem, as New Study Into ‘Plasticosis’ Disease Reveals.

WE INGEST ABOUT A CREDIT CARD'S WORTH OF PLASTIC EVERY WEEK.

Plasticosis, as identified by the researchers, is a type of fibrotic disease. Fibrosis is caused by excessive scarring in an area, as a result of repeated inflammation which prevents proper wound-healing.

After an injury, scar tissue forms to help in healing. If, however, an area is inflamed repeatedly, more and more scar tissue can form, which reduces the flexibility of the tissue affected, causing changes to its structure that may have serious negative effects.

The researchers had previously looked at the effects of microplastics on animal tissues, and found them in organs such as the spleen and kidneys, where they were found to be associated with the symptoms described in the previous paragraph. The team already knew that the flesh-footed shearwaters which live on Lord Howe Island, some 600km off the coast of Australia, were suffering from acute plastic contamination, and decided to consider them further.

In their latest research, the team found that plastic ingestion caused serious damage to the proventriculus, the first chamber of the birds’ stomachs. It’s this damage that the researchers decided to label “plasticosis”, since they found it to be specifically associated with the consumption of plastic. Although “plasticosis” is not a totally new term – it was already used to describe the breakdown of plastics in artificial joint replacements – it had never been applied in this way before. Other fibrotic diseases caused by inorganic materials such as silicone and asbestos have similar names – silicosis and asbestosis, for instance.

The effects of plasticosis on the birds are extremely unpleasant. As levels of scar tissue in the proventriculus increase, the tissue becomes more and more swollen, eventually starting to break down.

“The tubular glands, which secrete digestive compounds, are perhaps the best example of the impact of plasticosis,” explains study co-author Dr Alex Bond.

“When plastic is consumed, these glands get gradually more stunted until they eventually lose their tissue structure entirely at the highest levels of exposure.”