CLEVELAND — Microplastics are the result of plastic breaking down into tiny pieces, which can then be absorbed by plants and animals. 

Microplastics are a mission for Peter Huston.

“The thing about Lake Erie, specifically, is that it’s the second most contaminated lake when it comes to microplastics,” said Peter Huston, a board member of the Lake Erie Foundation. 

The foundation advocates for environmental protection of Lake Erie. Part of that work is to educate people about plastic contamination. 

“They fly off a boat or they blow out of the trash can. It’s not like people intentionally threw the plastic into the water, but they just end up there,” Huston said. 

These plastics then erode into smaller and smaller pieces, making their way into the lake’s ecosystem. Huston said large water treatment plants have not yet implemented ways to remove these microplastics from the water supply. 

“The major fear isn’t so much, say, going swimming in Lake Erie and getting microplastics on your skin,” said Dr. Chirstopher Hines, a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, “It’s more so in terms of say the fish or the algae and plants that do uptake some of these microplastics, then we go eat the fish. That’s a really strong way to ingest the microplastics you might want to avoid.” 

Hines says scientific breakthroughs in the last few years have allowed greater detection of nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics. 

“You aren’t going to see them with your eye, or even a microscope,” Hine said. 

These nanoplastics can permeate your cells, and they have been shown to be found everywhere in the human body.

“They’re in your brain, they are in your toes and they’re in your hair. They’re in your fingers, they’re everywhere,” Hine said. 

Hines said chemicals often in plastic, like BPA, have been shown to have negative health effects, but more research is needed to know the long term effects of plastic exposure. 

“It’s always beneficial for your health to minimize exposure or ingestion of foreign objects,” Hine said.

“We have a saying about plastics: refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle,” Huston said. 

Huston said every person has the ability to reduce the amount of plastic they add to the environment by making small changes like using refillable water bottles and avoiding single-use plastics.

“We can change that paradigm, but we need to start being careful about what we do with our plastics,” Huston said. 

If you are interested in learning more about plastic pollution, The Lake Erie Foundation is a partner in the Lake Erie Awareness Day on Aug. 7, an event aimed at educating the public about environmental issues impacting the lake.