Environmental microplastics we're often told are found everywhere throughout the environment

and in the bodies of animals worldwide, leaching toxic chemicals and clogging up digestive

systems. Moreover, they comprise ugly pollution, something nobody wants. Well, some of this

is true and some of this not so much. With such a lot of attention on the subject, can

we separate the fact from the fiction? Well, we're going to try and that's up next on Skeptoid.

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You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. All about environmental

microplastics. The environment is something that many people take personally, and environmental

issues can often result in emotional responses, often perfectly warranted ones. Compounding that

is the plastics industry, often seen as corrupt bad guys who pursue every last penny no matter

the cost to the planet. And compounding that even further is the question of public health,

with environmental microplastics filling our lungs and our bodies, what's to become of us?

Put it all together and you've got an explosive issue, with something in it to outrage just about

everyone. But today we're going to make an effort, chaotic or not, to push the emotion aside

and look at just the science of environmental microplastics.

As always, we'll begin with a definition and description of what microplastics are,

strictly speaking, there are any pieces of plastic smaller than five millimeters,

...