kinda related / plastic plants of the universe
Research: Crop plants are taking up microplastics
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-crop-microplastics.html
(CAS) recently found that microplastics are indeed contaminating edible plants, including vegetables we eat. The study was published in Nature Sustainability on July 13.
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Despite the prevalence of MPs throughout the environment, the matter of MP uptake by crop plants has not received much attention.
For decades, scientists believed that plastic particles were simply too large to pass through the physical barriers of intact plant tissue. But this new study disproves this assumption.
"Cracks at the emerging sites of new lateral roots of lettuce and wheat crops can take in MPs from the surrounding soil and water. Those MPs can then be transferred from the roots up to the edible parts of the crop," said Prof. Luo.
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at the lateral root emergence sites there are small cracks, and then the particles go through those cracks and enter the xylem vessels. Thus it is even possible that particles larger than the ones we studied might also be taken up by plants," said Dr. Li Lianzhen, first author of the study.
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If MPs are getting into our crop plants, they are also getting into our meat and dairy. This raises obvious concerns about growing crops on fields contaminated with wastewater treatment discharge or sewage sludge, a process that could introduce MPs into the food chain. It also raises the key question of how MPs affect human health, a question for which there is as yet no clear answer.