This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shimita Basso. Today, how microplastics reached every corner of our planet,

and what that means for your health. When you use plastic, the first thing that might come to your mind is drinking out of a plastic water bottle or packing your lunch in a plastic container or maybe

it's using the occasional plastic bag from the grocery store.

But what if I told you you are almost definitely underestimating your exposure?

Because many of the plastics that you knowingly interact with are shedding these tiny particles all the time.

And those little particles get everywhere.

Everywhere, and I'm not exaggerating.

I'm not kidding around when I say everywhere.

Everywhere that scientists look they find microplastics.

Matt Simon is a science journalist at Wired and the author of the book A Poison Like No Other,

how microplastics corrupted our planet and our bodies.

It looks at just how much microplastics have pervaded every inch of the world

from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to Mount Everest to the human body.

This is a planetary catastrophe.

Everything is exposed.

Now a lot is still unknown about the exact impact of all these tiny plastic particles on human health

But the science so far paints a pretty bleak picture

We know from early studies that microplastics when inhaled do terrible things to lung cells,

human lung cells.

I started by talking to Matt about the different types of plastics out there. There's macro, micro and

nanoplastics.

Microplastics as defined in the scientific community are a little bit smaller than

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