b"& reduce plastic use Studying the impact of microplastics on fishQ A Project aims toplastics Plastic-Free Philly is a project to raise awarenessTiny pieces of man-madelike water bottles and restaurant about how plastics affect the environment andmaterial called microplastics aretake-out containers. encourage people to trust their tap water soeverywhere. Theyre in rivers, near they can avoid single-use water bottles.our homes, and even in the air weThe last kind are fibers. These are breathe. threads of plastic that are shed from As part of the project, organizers last yearshirts. fleece jackets, and other invited artists to create large displays in theIts very likely that we all haveclothing. lobbies of buildings in Center City Philadelphia.microplastics inside of us right now, The artists used recycled and reclaimedsays Dr. Tim Maguire, Fish and invertebrates materials to get people to think about thean environmentalliving in streams and impact of plastic on our Earth.researcher atrivers will eat all three the Academy ofkinds of microplastics. In a recent interview, Healthy Courier reportersNatural Sciences ofBaby sea turtles asked Dr. Tim Maguire, who was involved in thePhiladelphia at Drexelare often packed project, how students can raise awareness inUniversity. full of microplastic their schools about recycling and the problem offragments, Dr. plastics. The Q&A below has been lightly edited. What do all theseMaguire says.microplastics mean forDr. Tim MaguireSo what can kids do to Q: What advice do you have for students whohuman health? We want to create an art display about plastics?dont yet know, Dr.Environmental Researcher reduce microplastics Maguire says. One of the big topicsin the environment? Next time A: Invite students or classrooms to createof scientific research right now isyou reach for a drink in a plastic proposals for a school art show. trying to figure out what effectsbottle, think before you grab it, he Q: What kinds of plastic containers andthese plastics have on our health. suggests.materials should they use? Dr. Maguire and his team areAsk yourself: Could you buy A: For our project, the artists used awatershed ecologists. They studysomething else in a glass bottle? combination of recycled materials and reclaimedrivers, lakes, and streams andCould you encourage the store materials. Recycled means the items were sentthe animals that live there. Theyowner to offer products that are to a factory and changed into a new product.are currently looking at hownot packaged in plastic? Could you Reclaimed means that the product has notmicroplastics affect fish. buy nothing? Be mindful of what been changed but is used in a new way, or shownyou use, and reduce your garbage, in a new form. For instance, one artist reclaimedSo far, Dr. Maguire says, his teamDr. Maguire says. plastic water bottles and used the bottoms tohas observed two main effects.One is on hormones, which areHe also says to think about what make sand dollars. chemical signals that tell livingyou can create rather than buy. If Q: Are there any safety issues they should bethings how to grow and change, hethe plastic is already generated, aware of? says. The other observation is whatuse it for something else, he says. we call fitness, which in biologyPeanut butter jars can become A: When youre doing art with plastic, always bemeans how well organisms developpencil cases.careful when you heat it up because it will giveand reproduce.Remember, Dr. Maguire says, plastic off fumes. Thats because chemical componentshas a long life. It can be around for that were stable get turned into vapor. CertainDr. Maguire says there are three glues also can cause plastics to change state kinds of microplastics, whichhundreds of years.from a solid to a liquid. It could burn you.he defines as plastics that are 5By Healthy Courier staffmillimeters in length or smaller. Catholic Partnership SchoolsQ: What should students do with the creationsThats less than one-fifth of an inch. once they're finished displaying them?The first kind are beads. They A: You could do the same thing that we did inare raw materials used in our Plastic-Free Philly project. Auction themfactories to make plastic items. off or keep them and display them. They couldFor instance, Dr. Maguire says, become an eighth-grade rite of passage. Theyif you wanted to make plastic also can be dismantled and then next yearspencil cases, youd buy beads and students can reclaim them and make somethingsquish them together to form the new. cases. The beads can get into the By Healthy Courier staffenvironment a number of ways.Catholic Partnership Schools For example, they can spill out of their containers when they are transported or accidentally be washed away in wastewater.The second type are fragments. They are jagged pieces of plasticPage 13 illustration by Fernando Jardon, 8th grade, that were part of other productsCatholic Partnership Schools Healthy Courier S p r i n g 2 0 2 3 | H E A L T H Y N E W S W O R K S . O R G13"