By Mary O’KEEFE

Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long. On numerous occasions I have written about microplastics and how it is a kind of “reap what you sow” moment as scientists find these tiny pieces of plastics in everything – including our food.

Let’s get in our “WABAC” (or “way back machine” for those who remember Mr. Peabody from “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”) and look at how we arrived in our plastic world.

It was 1907 when Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland pioneered the first fully synthetic plastic. As is in most discoveries there were good and bad elements. Prior to synthetic plastics, animal horns [and shells] were used to create items like cutlery and jewelry. The comb-making industry was one of the biggest applications of the horn in the 19th century. As fate would have it, the demand for natural animal “plastics” was greater than the animal kingdom could provide. In fact, the demand for elephant ivory was so great it was causing the elephant to come dangerously close to extinction. That fate was looming over some turtles as well.

So science was turned to and Baekeland was the first to pattern the synthetic plastic. Now the elephants were safe (well not really because there were still people who absolutely needed ivory to decorate their hair and homes, but at least a slight break was extended to these majestic creatures).

Synthetic plastic was perfect. It was inexpensive and could be designed in a variety of ways.

Then in the early 20th century, those scamps in the petroleum and chemical industries began to form alliances within companies like Dow Chemicals, ExxonMobil, DuPont and BASF. These companies are today still the major producers of raw material resins for the plastic industry, according to Science Museum UK.

Again, the good flip of the oily coin was these companies wanted to make use of waste material from processing crude oil and natural gas. So, hooray for recycling? Oh, wait….

One of the most prolific of these companies was Imperial Chemical Industries, which beat out both German and U.S. competitors to make a plastic form.

“The following year, a team at ICI’s plant in Winnington, England was attempting to combine ethylene and Benzaldehyde under great pressure and heat. The experiment failed. Instead, due to a leak of oxygen into the vessel, they found a white waxy substance in a reaction tube. This was found to be a polymer of ethylene. Now the world’s most abundant plastic, polyethylene was a wonder material: strong, flexible and heat-resistant,” according to Science Museum UK.

This plastic was first used in the insulation of radar cabling during WWII; but then the plastics boom happened and plastic was in everything from artificial hips to nylon stockings.

Oh, happy days were here again as plastics replaced just about everything in modern society – but no one was questioning the waste it was creating.

Around the world, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, while up to five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed for single-use purposes – that is, used just once and then thrown away, according to the UN Environment Programme in an article titled, “Our planet is choking on plastic.”

In 2015, President Obama signed the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015. This law banned plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products. Microbeads are a type of microplastic that are tiny plastic particles added to cosmetics and personal care products often used as emulsifying agents.

In a study done this year by the University of New Mexico, researchers found microplastics in canine and human testicular tissue.

According to researchers, the study found “significant concentrations of microplastics in the testicular tissue of both humans and dogs, adding to growing concern about their possible effect on human reproductive health.”

Okay, anyone worried now? Microplastics are quickly becoming a focus of study for many and State Senator Anthony Portantino has moved forward with introducing legislation for a California study with SB 116376.2. This bill would require a study by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard and Assessment to study the impacts of microplastics in drinking water, including bottled water, to evaluate and identify safe and unsafe levels of microplastics in those types of water.

The Earth really is a delicate balance between nature and society.

“Climate change and plastic pollution are interconnected global challenges. Rising temperatures and moisture alter plastic characteristics contributing to waste, microplastic generation and release of hazardous substances,” according to nature.com.

In other words, as temperatures rise (Earth’s global average temperature has increased by about 1 degree Celsius pre-industrial levels), polymers, or plastics, deteriorate faster.

“A warmer climate accelerates polymer degradation and thus the breakdown of plastic items into smaller species, substantially [expediting] the generation of secondary microplastics,” according to nature.com.

So again, we continue to trade one problem for another … and very soon we will have little to trade. From now on, whatever scientific breakthroughs we have we must look at not just the big picture but also the micro effect as well.

For us now, according to NOAA the U.S. had its second warmest June amid several record-setting heat waves. As of Tuesday there was an excessive heat warning through today at 9 p.m. Today we should see temperatures up to 101 degrees with a slight cooling on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with highs in the mid to high 90s. Monday will continue the cooling trend with 90 degrees as a high.

An excessive heat warning means there are dangerously hot conditions possible with temperatures from 98 to 108. Warm overnight conditions are expected much of this week limiting nighttime relief from the heat, according to NOAA.