Professor earns grant to study critical threat to water safety: 'We don't have a ton of evidence compiled yet'

Geoscience professor Nan Crystal Arens says the "many ways that microplastics might be harmful to humans" hasn't been studied sufficiently — and she secured a $358,976 grant from the National Science Foundation to spend three years investigating the issue with a team of undergraduates in New York, according to the Finger Lakes Times.

What's happening?

Concerns about microplastics, defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as plastic particles "less than five millimeters in length (or about the size of a pencil eraser)," have been steadily increasing in recent years.

Those concerns exist in part because microplastics have been found virtually "everywhere," often in areas rarely or barely touched by human activity, like Antarctica.

A pair of high school students recently identified "a concerning level" of microplastics in two remote lakes at Grand Teton National Park. Their findings were worrisome in part because the National Park Service does not routinely test for microplastic pollution.

Why is research into microplastics important?

The fact that microplastics have proliferated across land, sea, and air is one of two things often centered in reporting on the issue. 

The other, as Harvard Magazine noted in 2023, is that research into whether microplastics "pose threats to human health is still in its infancy" — a sentiment Arens echoed recently when discussing the NSF grant.

Finger Lakes Times spoke with Arens, a professor of geoscience at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, about the newly awarded NSF grant. It will fund a collaboration between Arens and Professor Linda Tseng of The City College of New York, focused on the "impact of microplastics in the Finger Lakes watershed" in Central and Western New York.

Arens explained that there are "many ways that microplastics might be harmful to humans, but we don't have a ton of evidence compiled yet," a sentiment frequently expressed by scientists sounding the alarm on plastic pollution.

Arens described the three-year collaborative effort between HWS and CCNY as an opportunity for undergraduates to engage in "cutting-edge research on microplastic pollution," and to "contribute to meaningful scientific inquiry while preparing them to address pressing environmental challenges."

Researchers are quick to note that more inquiry is needed to truly understand the impact of microplastics on human health — but existing research has identified potential risks to liver health and cognition, and microplastics have even been found in human semen samples.

How often do you worry about the quality of your drinking water? Never 👎 Sometimes 😟 Often 🙁 Always 😨 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

What can I do about microplastics in the environment?

Scientists have repeatedly called for more research into the pervasive presence of microplastics in our air and water and their effects on human health, but research is not the sum of what we can do to understand and ultimately limit our everyday exposure to microplastics.

Fast fashion's impact on the environment is well-documented, and adopting a more sustainable approach to shopping can further reduce exposure to microplastics, both directly and indirectly.

Limiting or eschewing single-use plastics is another way to avoid contributing to the sheer volume of microplastics in our environment.

Avoiding plastic water bottles and not microwaving foods in plastic containers can reduce ingestion of microplastics as well — and researchers are working on a way to turn plastic waste into a valuable material known as graphene.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.