The River Tame in Greater Manchester has the highest levels of of microplastics anywhere in the world. This, combined with toxic algae produced by rising global temperatures, means our waterbirds are living in a poisonous, plastic soup.
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A lot of these micro-plastic particles are from plastic that has decomposed down despite us being told that some of these plastic don't degrade for 10,000 years or whatever.

Anyone that stores things long term in carrier bags and bin bags soon realise we are getting fed a load of drivel, I've had plastic bags decompose in less than a year.

Is there any evidence that microplastics cause any harm to humans?

I suspect there isn't.

My bet is that if you look for them in humans and animals you will find them, but you will also find small quantities of very fine sand and probably some finely divided other things too. These will all be things that animals have evolved to tolerate.

If we are going to spend money to cure a problem ( something I am 100% in favour of) we need to be clear that it IS a problem first!

+1

1. Its unlikely that the River Thame has the highest levels of miicro plastics in the World. Have you ever witnessed the pollution in developing countries?

2. Microplastics are not toxic - plastics are generally inert - otherwise we would not use them for all the really useful plastic things do

3. Toxic algae are not produced but "rising global temperatures". Algal growth is dependent on many factors - sunlight, nutrients etc - I am pretty sure that differences in average temperature are not a limiting step in algal growth.

4. There may be other very good reasons why we ( human race) need to reduce our footprint on this planet of ours, but if support is needed then these attention-grabbing headlines are not the way

It says it's worse than Hong Kong and South Korea. Research done by Manchester University.

https://www.independent.co.uk/envir...orst-ever-university-study-a8248576.html