I am nothing to say about the Mueller report from a science perspective, so I went searching the recent literature for something of significance. An article that caught my interest was about the measurement of microplastics in the French Pyrenees. I have known about the great Pacific plastic gyre which is about twice the size of Texas and is deadly to ocean life, but this one is completely new.

The measurements were made in a pristine area of the French Pyrenees near the border with Spain. The area is far from any population center and is high enough in altitude that the air should be about as clean as it can be. From November 2017 to March 2018 researchers gathered water from the weather station's collectors and searched for microplastics. They found approximately 365 particles in each square yard. They speculate that the source is big cities like Barcelona, which is approximately 100 miles to the south.

It has been known that microplastics can hang in the air of big cities, like Paris, or New York, but it was not suspected that they were ubiquitous. Verification of the problem being ubiquitous will require measurements in more remote locations. The new measurements point to the need for more data from a variety of locations.

The problem with plastic is that it continually breaks up into smaller pieces and takes a thousand years or more to decompose, building up in the environment. Something like a plastic bottle or straw breaks up into small pieces fairly quickly. It then breaks up to even smaller microplastics with time and then into nano plastics. These microplastics and nano plastics make their way into other organisms, and people fairly easily, we end up eating and breathing them continually.

Researchers have found that nano plastics can be a danger to living organisms. One study found that when a nano plastic was introduced to an animal's system, it had spread throughout the animal in 6 hours. They have also found that these plastics absorb all of the chemicals they pass through, such as pesticides, and heavy metals. According to Deonie Allen (look her up on Google), "Nanoplastics look a lot like the nanoparticles used in medicine to deliver drugs in the human body. "So they can go through the blood-brain barrier potentially in exactly the same way but carrying their toxins, and, this is really worrying." To be clear, though, this idea has not been backed up with data."

The article discussed several more aspects of the plastics we use, even in our clothing, and their impact on the environment. It appears to me to be an issue of concern.

Some people have made fun of the ban on plastic straws asking why are they illegal and marijuana is becoming legal. My answer is that perhaps plastic is more threatening to our long-term survival. There are little things we can do to help alleviate the problem. For example, if I can carry out of the store whatever I have bought, I refuse the plastic bag. When I do take a plastic bag, I try to reuse it. It appears that our overuse of plastic is a health risk.