Danger Dust - What Else?

Why is that a problem?

These pieces float around, and some end up in human bodies. The smallest pieces pass through cells and into the nucleus, where they can start messing with DNA. Nano- and microplastics, which seem to have similar sizes and shapes to asbestos, raise the potential that they could cause cancer, heart disease/stroke, and other diseases.

Is there an engineering solution to address this problem?

Our results suggest that engineering the architecture of the soft layers to be more resilient would decrease the amount of crystalline fragments that break off. Clearly, focus needs to be placed on this point to reduce the amount of micro- and nanoplastics created by normal polymer degradation.

How can better understanding nanoplastics improve human health?

Only 2% of plastics are recycled, mostly because it's too expensive. But if you just throw plastic into the environment, it creates micro- and nanoplastics that look like they are going to cause health problems. If you think about it that way, if you have to choose between the health problems that could be created by the nanoplastics vs. the cost of recycling, then maybe it's actually cheaper to recycle.