Microplastics are increasingly being present in our bodies and food supply.
They’re defined as pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters — in regards to the size of a pencil eraser. But they may also be much smaller, like the dimensions of a virus particle or a strand of DNA.
Petrochemicals, the constructing blocks of plastic, are produced from oil and gas. The business is a small but profitable area of the fossil fuel industry, and any beat back on the usage of plastics is seen as a threat to the oil and gas industry.
“Where the industry is most vulnerable is on the human exposure to microplastics,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity. “They are going to need to attempt to tell us that exposure to microplastics each day, from birth to death is just nice. It’s just great. You must just eat more of it. It’s no problem. And I just don’t think they will win that argument.”
Scientific research on microplastics has spiked over the past few years. The National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database reported that the extent of published scientific research related to the search term “microplastics” has nearly doubled from 2021 to 2024.
One study, published in Nature Medicine in February, found that human brains from 2024 had a median of about 7 grams of plastic, which is about 50% more plastic than brains examined from 2016. Scientists involved within the study told CNBC that those samples got here from the frontal cortex, which ongoing research suggests may contain the best levels of microplastic.
“If people think there are watchdogs measuring and understanding most of these nanoplastics as they’re coming in, our food, our water, our air, I actually have not seen any evidence of that taking place on any meaningful scale,” said Andrew West, a researcher at Duke University and certainly one of the co-authors of the study.
Microplastics even have been found by scientists within the muscle tissue of fish and even within the fibers of fruit and veggies.
“Because of advances in monitoring technology, we are able to now detect incredibly tiny amounts of drugs like microplastics,” said Kimberly Sensible White, vice chairman of regulatory and scientific affairs on the American Chemistry Council, a trade association for the plastics industry. “But finding something at extremely low levels doesn’t mean it’s harmful. Plastics deliver proven advantages in health care, food safety, transportation and technology — advantages we won’t afford to lose.”
Industry giants are investing heavily into chemical production as oil demand is declining from electrification, U.S. tariffs and slowing economic growth in China and India. The International Energy Agency said electric vehicle adoption, for instance, has displaced greater than 1 million barrels of oil consumption per day in 2024 and that is predicted to extend to five million barrels by 2030.
In its 2024 outlook, BP said the declining use of oil in transportation was being offset by oil use for petrochemical production. While chemical uses include quite a lot of products like detergent and paints, polyethylene plastics are a significant a part of the chemicals business.
“Major oil and gas corporations are playing a key role in the availability chain for plastics. After which there are an entire set of many other corporations [on] the downstream side which are involved in creating the plastics,” said Yale University energy and environmental economics professor Kenneth Gillingham. “The excess of natural gas is coming about due to fracking, and it’s led to low prices of natural gas.”
Within the U.S., about 1.5% of natural gas is converted into chemicals which are used to make plastics and other consumer products, in accordance with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company on the planet, has also increased its activity within the space. In 2020, it bought a 70% stake in petrochemicals company SABIC. While fourth-quarter 2024 results were lower than expected, SABIC made nearly $35 billion from petrochemicals last yr.
“We’re unquestionably, as a society, higher off having plastics than no plastics, but we’re facing the implications of getting those plastics,” Gillingham said.
Watch the video to learn more about how microplastics have turn into a significant issue for large oil.
