Microplastics found in human heart tissues
medicalxpress.com
medicalxpress.com
That's the top of the range when we're talking about microplastic in oceans, right? Surely the upper range in human bodies is <1mm?
"analyzed the samples with laser direct infrared imaging and identified 20 to 500 micrometer-wide particles made from eight types of plastic, including polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride and poly(methyl methacrylate)."
500 micrometer is 0.5 millimeter. According to a random Quora user, that's about half the thickness of your credit card/a ziploc bag, a paper envelope, etc.
Smal, but each sample "detected tens to thousands of individual microplastic pieces in most tissue samples", that adds up, though we don't know the distribution of sizes of those particules.
The supposedly correct definition of a microplastic is anything from one micron to 1000 microns. That's three orders of magnitude, which is useless. A 1000 micron chunk has a million times more mass than a 1 micron chunk of the same shape and density.
BTW Americans learned metric in school as kids (I did late 70s) and didn't learn the "Imperial" system, which I still don't know, but it seems that signs and so forth never got switched over. I have wondered for 40+ years if it's a laziness thing, and I don't know.
Either that, or else I have a problem with metric of my own.
If it was cubic mils in a cubic furlong, I'd never have made that typo.
Metric makes you careless and lazy. :)
So right, a one micron particle is a billion (10^9) times lighter than a millimeter (1000 micron) particle of the same density and shape.
It's a big spread.
The small particles will behave differently and get into different places from the large ones. The micron ones can pass through some membranes that the 1000 microns obviously cannot.