New research suggests the microplastics health risk may not be as bad as we thought

Scientists may have overestimated the potential health risk of microplastics, according to a new study from the University of Michigan, which identified a major culprit that could have unintentionally skewed results over multiple studies. Researchers found that the nitrile and latex gloves that scientists wear while measuring microplastics may be leading to false positives of the tiny pollutants. That’s because the gloves are coated with non-plastic particles called stearates—soap-like particles which can rub off or shed onto lab equipment, “creating thousands of false positives per square millimeter (or about one-thousandth of a square inch.” However, the study author warns, that’s not to say microplastics aren’t a big problem. “We may be overestimating microplastics, but there should be none,” Anne McNeil, senior author of the University of Michigan study, said in a statement. “There’s still a lot out there.” What are microplastics? Microplas