In our food, clothes and even bodies exists a threat that is invisible to the naked eye — microplastics. As research on these tiny plastic particles advances, its hazardous nature becomes more apparent.
Nelia Gross, a PhD candidate studying materials science and engineering, began her first year at Boston University in 2022 researching how environmental contaminants influence how our bodies fight off diseases.
This process is known as antimicrobial resistance, or when medicines used to treat infectious diseases no longer become effective, according to the World Health Organization.
For 10 to 15 days, Gross and other researchers incubated several types of microplastics with E. coli, a bacteria found in the human digestive tract that can produce toxins
“What we saw was that the amount of antibiotics that we needed to kill off the bacteria was increasing,” she said.
Gross said the team’s initial findings on antimicrobial resistance were unsurprising, as microplastics carry bacteria already.
“The rate at which it started at and the magnitude that it got to by the end of the 10 days was what was novel about our study,” she said.
Bacteria attach to the microplastic surfaces to form a barrier called biofilm, which increases antimicrobial resistance by 1000 fold, Gross said.
“We go into our houses and it protects us from intruders or weather,” she said. “Biofilms act very much the same.”
Gross characterizes these bacteria as “better biofilm formers” after observing how they still formed biofilms even without an attachable surface.
“We realized there is something more than a simple interaction between bacteria and material,” said Muhammad Zaman, a professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Center of Forced Displacement at BU.
Zaman said antimicrobial resistance is also a major global health challenge, specifically affecting communities impacted by conflict, persecution and climate change.
“The challenge is, as you can imagine, that many places have very serious issues of plastic pollution of microplastics,” he said.
For some students, the fear of microplastics has extended into their daily lives.
When people hear the term “microplastics” it can be terrifying, said sophomore Alara Baran.
Informing the public on advancements being made to slow the spread of microplastics is one way to ease these concerns, she said.
BU Sustainability, which supports sustainable and equitable planning, operations and culture on campus, has also taken initiatives to reduce plastic waste on campus through communication and awareness with the BU community.
Currently, BU Sustainability’s goal is to create a zero-waste campus by 2030.
“[People] don’t know that we don’t have the space to manage the amount of waste we generate,” said Sarah Healey, the Zero Waste manager at BU Sustainability.
Healey said BU Sustainability initiatives, including “Goodwill, Not Landfill,” allow students to donate clothing and other materials in bins near residential buildings during the weeks prior to move-out. The donation program is just one of the steps the organization has taken to combat plastic waste on campus.
Last year, BU Sustainability diverted 120,000 pounds of items, specifically clothing and other plastic materials, from landfills and incinerators to Goodwill.
“We are impacting communities well beyond Massachusetts,” Healey said, whose family has owned a wholesale fishing company in Boston for more than 130 years. “My community is a really important driving factor of what I’m trying to do.”
By adding more contaminants to their study, Gross said they can start simulating more “real-world” experiments in the lab until they can begin working in the field.
“You start with a recognition that this is something serious,” said Zaman. “Awareness generates public pressure to increase regulatory systems at the same time recognizing that some people are at a greater risk.”
Gross said there should be a “more serious tone” to the effect that waste disposal and mismanagement is having on humans.
“At the end of the day, we’re running out of antibiotics,” she said. “We only have a certain amount of time to create novel antibiotics or find other alternatives past the current treatments we have.”
Microplastics and other environmental contaminants limit this time, said Gross.
To combat these challenges, Healey emphasized getting involved in local politics and community.
“At the end of the day, we’re working on building systemic change within our community, and individual behavior is important,” Healey said. “But we also need to look at how we make systems accessible to all people in our community.”
With a new field, comes a lot of initial findings, said Gross.
“It should be more a call to action to do more research, trying to understand what’s happening in the field, particularly with more vulnerable communities,” she said.
