What are microplastics?
Microplastics are usually understood to mean plastic particles with a maximum size of 5 millimeters. These may be microfibres or granules or particles that have become microscopic in size as a result of the decomposition of larger plastic products. Microplastics are released into nature by washing clothes, for example, or via waste and have since been found from deep in the sea to high in the mountains.
In their research, the researchers do not refer to microplastics but to plastic particles. The smallest particles that could be measured were 700 nanometers, smaller than the length of a bacterium. The largest particle was a maximum of half a millimeter in size, because of the diameter of the needle with which blood was pricked.
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